The image of Porta Napoli, a well-known illustrative logo, is a bit of the symbol of the city, for better or for worse: the Aversans in fact, in the frequent exchanges of colorful phrases between one Municipality and another of Terra di Lavoro, are traditionally accused of being opportunists, of having a double face.
The origin of it seems to be found precisely in the two quadrants (faces) of the large clock placed on the mighty Arco dell’Annunziata (1777).
The latter served to connect the Real Casa Santa dell’Annunziata (a charity institution built in the early 1300s to assist the sick and orphans and prepare young women for marriage) with the new bell tower built in 1712 to replace the old one. , fifteenth century, which flanked laterally the entrance portal of the Real Casa and was by now extremely dilapidated.
Porta Napoli marked the renewed southern limit of the city, following the birth of the Lemitone district, promoted by the same pious institution.

We do not know the time of the foundation of the complex, the existence of the church of the SS. Annunziata is however, already attested in 1320, in a document of the SS. Annunziata di Sulmona.
On 23 November 1423 Queen Giovanna II donated the assets belonging to the hospital of S. Eligio to the Holy House, with the right of royal patronage.
The regular existence of the institute is documented by the series of Governors, elected since 1410 to administer the Real Casa Santa, whose task was to feed orphans, care for the sick and educate young women to marry.
The structure is divided into several buildings, erected in different eras and intended for specific uses.

The main entrance is decorated with a round arch, dating back to 1518 and of uncertain attribution, commissioned, probably by the Mormile family, as can be seen from the inscription placed on the entablature.
The arch is delimited by two coupled pilasters resting on high piperno bases, which frame two bas-reliefs depicting the Resurrection on the right and the Creation of the world on the left.
The whole structure of the arch, in marble, is enriched by reliefs depicting characters and allegorical scenes of uncertain interpretation probably attributable to Rainulfo Drengot, founder of the Norman county.
The visible lesions on the marble slabs are attributable to the disastrous collapse of the bell tower in 1667.

On the side of the building of the Royal House stands the imposing bell tower, built in 1477 and collapsed ruinously, as mentioned, in 1667 due to a “legendary” lightning bolt, mentioned in the documents of the time. In 1712, under the direction of Giuseppe Locchese, the reconstruction of the current bell tower began, with a quadrangular plan, with a massive base in ashlar piperno and two upper orders with Doric and Ionic pilasters. In 1776 Giacomo Gentile completed the structure with the construction of the arch surmounted by the clock, made with the same material and style as the bell tower, which was thus connected to the entrance of the Annunziata. The bell tower with the arch and the clock, known as Porta Napoli, is the monument with which the city of Aversa is usually identified (photo on the side).

Beyond the sixteenth-century marble arch you can see on the right side of the entrance hall the seventeenth-century staircase leading to the upper floor of the ancient hospital.
Beyond the atrium, you reach a first courtyard, to the left of which a double flight of stairs develops, decorated with marble bas-reliefs from the 16th-17th centuries, which culminates in a semi-elliptical balcony, through which you entered the ancient Stationery.
On the right side opens the nineteenth-century entrance to the cloister overlooked by the so-called Hall of the columns.

At the end of the courtyard there is the church of SS. Annunziata preceded by a large pronaos consisting of 4 cipollino marble columns with Corinthian capitals from Atella, formerly part of the Sedile di S. Luigi, which support round arches forming three spans covered by cross vaults richly decorated with floral motifs and putti in stucco made by Pietro Scarola in 1698.

The church was built between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries originally without side chapels, which were built between 1612 and 1621 under the direction of Fra ‘Giuseppe Nuvolo.

In 1619 the same architect began, on the right side of the nave, the construction of the Sacristy, decorated with wooden jambs.

In 1674 a large barrel vault replaced the original wooden ceiling; while in 1681 the marble decoration of the interior began, with the construction of the floor and the High Altar, originally decorated with marble putti by Lorenzo Vaccaro. The construction of the dome dates back to the beginning of the 18th century, which collapsed in 1823 and was rebuilt in a reduced form.

The Latin cross interior has a single vast and majestic nave, with classical shapes. On the counter-façade, on the sides of the entrance, are the marble tombs of Aloise Zurlo, from 1546 (left) and Giovanni di Martuccio from 1615 (right).
On the first pillars there are two stoups in polychrome marble by Gaetano Sacco from 1710-11.

The chapels are adorned with 17th-18th century paintings including the table of the Madonna delle Grazie and that of S. Giovanni Evangelista both by Angelillo Arcuccio (1st chapel on the right).

In the VI left chapel there is a valuable wooden crucifix from the 16th century.

Between the nave and the transept there are two grandiose and rich organs in gilded wood from 1687-88. On the wall of the right transept there is the Deposition of Christ a panel by Marco Pino da Siena from 1571; while on the left there are the Adoration of the Shepherds by Francesco Solimena from 1688 and the Massacre of the Innocents, a large painting by Giuseppe Simonelli from the 18th century.

Above the main altar you can admire the table of the Annunciation from the 15th century, attributed to Ferrante Maglione.

The complex currently houses the Faculty of Engineering of the Second University of Naples (SUN).