contact: Jeff Matthews

                           

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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