Cappella del SS. Sacramento, Religious chapel in Gesualdo, Italy

The Cappella del SS. Sacramento, called the Cappellone, stands in Gesualdo above a lower room: a square block raised by an outdoor stairway, topped by a cylindrical drum with a dome and lantern. A travertine facade frames a round-arched wooden portal between two carved pilasters, and a railed terrace rings the drum. Inside is a recent fresco of Emanuele Gesualdo pardoning his father Carlo, with the town's districts.

The building date is uncertain; the most likely period is the first decades of the 17th century, when Gesualdo was governed by Prince Nicolò Ludovisi. Construction was funded by income from the chapel of the sacrament, by "zealous and honest" procurators and especially by Don Biagio Volpe. The first certain record is the Onciaro cadastre drawn up in 1746 by notary Nicola Taurasi, listing the chapel's assets.

The chapel served as the seat of the Confraternity of the Santissimo Sacramento, whose procurators, including Don Biagio Volpe, funded its construction. Its position facing the square allowed the solemn blessing to be given to the faithful gathered outside. A recent fresco inside depicts Emanuele Gesualdo pardoning his father Carlo, with the main districts of the town shown.

The chapel stands on its own, raised above street level by a wide external flight of steps; you approach it from the square in front, not through the cathedral. A stone cornice crowns the square base, and a railed terrace runs around the cylindrical drum below the dome.

The interior holds a recent fresco showing Emanuele Gesualdo pardoning his father Carlo, with the main districts that gave their names to the contrade of Gesualdo depicted around them. It recalls the palio dell'alabarda held in the town in the 1990s.