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Palazzo
Sirignano
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—a
few hundreds meters to the east at the very
beginning of the Riviera di Chiaia—from 1605, even
though it is placed 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 Floridiana; yet, Palazzo Sirignano is worth a look and a visit, as the Tirrenia company also maintains a public art gallery on the premises. to main index to urban portal |
