La sala was built in 1690 to house a now-lost series of extremely precious objects of the Dominicans and the hearts of Charles of Anjou, Alfonso I, and Ferrante.
The hearts were kept in large silver cases which, during the French rule, along with many other objects kept in the “Treasure”, were melted down, consigning to an unknown fate the hearts they contained.
The Treasure Room, after the restorations carried out on the occasion of the Jubilee of 2000, hosts a permanent exhibition of objects, divided into 4 thematic sections, corresponding to four monumental wooden cabinets.
The cabinets, made of walnut, are the work of the cabinetmaker Francesco Antonio Picchiatti (1749). The decoration of the doors was made following the ornamental style of the floor, a splendid example of maiolica terracotta, made by the Massa brothers who were also the authors of the maiolicas in the cloister of Santa Chiara.
The sections
The Aragonese tombs: in this cabinet, the most extraordinary specimens gathered in the Treasure Room are exhibited. At the end of the eighties, the clothes, dated between the 15th and 16th centuries, which were worn by the mummies placed in the burial tombs, kept and displayed in the adjacent Sacristy, were removed from the bodies, restored, and subsequently exhibited. A snapshot of 15th-century costume history is reconstructed through Damascus clothes, silk veils and cushions, sheaths, daggers, the coat of arms of the Aragonese family and of some members of the court nobility.
The processions: on the northwest wall, intended to house those sacred objects carried in procession during the religious festivals of the 18th and 19th centuries, among vases and halos the statues of the main Dominican saints are gathered. The procession busts, displayed today in the room, reproduce the originals, in silver, which were melted down during the French decade and thus lost.
The Treasure: on the northeast wall of the Room dedicated to the actual “Treasure”, the most precious liturgical apparatus that the Dominican friars owned are kept: altar frontal panels, gold and polychrome silk chasubles, brocade damask vestments of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The sacred furnishings: in this cabinet are displayed, among other sacred objects, a splendid rock crystal cross and one of the cloths, entirely handmade, donated by the D’Aquino family to the Basilica.
