The Palazzo
Doria d’Angri was finished in the late 1700s by
Carlo Vanvitelli, who finished the work begun by his
father, Luigi Vanvitelli.
Marcantonio Doria had commissioned the building. The
Palazzo d'Angri faces out onto Largo dello Spirito
Santo and is bounded on either side by via
Toledo and via Monteoliveto. Decorative
work was done by many of the same artists who worked on
the great Royal Palace in
Caserta. The original owners of the building, the
Doria family, assembled a vast art collection, including
works by Caravaggio. These works, in addition to
numerous porcelain pieces, clocks, carpets, etc. have
been lost over the years through auction.
In more recent
times, the building and the square in front, renamed Piazza
September 7, are well known because on that date
in 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi, after his triumphant
campaign from Sicily to Naples, stepped out onto the
balcony of the Palazzo d’Angri and proclaimed
the annexation of the Kingdom
of the Two Sicilies (The Kingdom of Naples) to the
Kingdom of Italy, thus ending a thousand years of
separate history of southern Italy and forming the
modern nation of Italy. (See The
Bourbons, part 3, for more about that period in
the history of Naples.)
update: Feb. 2, 2014--The
papers announced today that the building is up for sale.
Four and one-half million euros will get you one of the
most historic buildings in Italy. There is consternation
in some quarters about selling off historic treasures
such as this one.
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