entry
Feb 2008
Palazzo
Sirignano
No doubt it will be
some time before residents of the Chiaia
section of Naples start calling Palazzo Sirignano by
its new name, the “Tirrenia” building, or something
like that. After all, it has always been Palazzo Sirignano. That ”always” goes
back to the year it was built, 1535, when the new
Spanish nobility in their new vice-realm of Naples
started to build out to the west along the Riviera
di Chiaia and what was then the seaside. (The more
recent Villa Comunale
and the road, via
Caracciolo, now stand between the older
thoroughfare and the water.
(But see this 2014 update.
Tirennia has moved.)
Some
sources claim that Palazzo Sirignano was, indeed, the
first Spanish villa along the Riviera di Chiaia to be
completed. The year 1535 is early enough to make that
claim plausible. Thus, the large
Palazzo Satriano, from 1605, a few hundreds
meters to the east (to the right in this photo) at the
very beginning of the Riviera di Chiaia, even though
it sits first in a long row of impressive buildings
stretching towards Mergellina,
is somewhat of a late-comer.
The
great viceroy, Pedro de Toledo,
authorized the construction of Palazzo Sirignano for one
Don Ferdinando Alarcon, Marquis of the Valle and captain
of the Spanish army. The original building was in
Renaissance style with the main entrance facing the
shoreline, and a quadrangular tower for the defense of
the building and surrounding area against attacks by Saracen pirates. The building
remained substantially unchanged until the Bourbon dynasty took over the
kingdom of Naples in the 1700s; further changes were
made after 1889, the year in which ownership of the
building passed to Prince Caravita di Sirignano, whose
name the villa still bears in popular usage. The changes
were radical and involved the complete restructuring of
the exterior in a Neo-Renaissance style and changes to
much of the interior.
The building was sold in 1917 to the Tirrenia Navigation company, which did some needed renovation; since 1937 Palazzo Sirignano has been the headquarters of that company in Naples. The eye of the casual passer-by is more likely to be caught by the adjacent and opulent neo-Classical Villa Pignatelli; yet, Palazzo Sirignano is worth a look and a visit; the Tirrenia company also maintains a public art gallery on the premises.
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