The Institution of the Monte di Pietà of Naples was founded in 1539 in order to lend money without interest to the needy, who in exchange offered a pledge.

If the repayment of the money did not occur within two years, the pledge was sold and the money in excess of the amount lent was returned to the debtor.

The architect Giovan Battista Cavagna built the headquarters (1597-1602) which has a large courtyard and a facade set up like a Greek temple, with four pilasters and a triangular tympanum; the sculptures of the lateral niches and of the pediment enliven the classical façade, anticipating the majesty of the interiors.

The quadrangular chapel is entirely decorated with stuccoes and frescoes with the Stories of the Passion (1601-1618) by Belisario Corenzio and the young Battistello Caracciolo.

On the chapel walls there are three altar paintings painted by late mannerist artists, exponents of the devotional painting dear to the Counter-Reformation: the Assumption of the Virgin by Ippolito Borghese (1603), the Deposition by Fabrizio Santafede (1601-1603) and the Resurrection begun by Girolamo Learned and finished by Santafede in 1608. The anti-sacristy, the sacristy, the Cantoniere room, with majolica floors, carved furnishings and eighteenth-century frescoes, as well as the new exhibition rooms, complete the visit of this ancient artistic and historical-social testimony.