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Mergellina; —Ravaschieri di Satriano (palazzo) —J. Sannazzaro
It is not immediately evident from studying the modern lay-out of the coast between the Castel dell'Ovo and the harbor of Mergellina just how isolated Mergellina was from the rest of Naples through a long history that stretches from the days of the Greeks to the present. It is true that the city of Naples, itself—the historic center and the immediate surroundings—is the oldest continuously inhabited center of large population in Europe. It is, however, equally true that many of the names that one associates with Naples, such as Mergellina (and even Santa Lucia, much closer in towards the city than Mergellina) were, until the 1500s, "quaint fishing villages on the outskirts of Naples" (and I copied that phrase from an early tour-guide to the area, which so described Santa Lucia, the area around the Castel dell'Ovo). Mergellina is yet another mile to the west along the
waterfront. Today, Santa Lucia and Mergellina are
connected by via Caracciolo, a road from the late
1800s. (Click here for an
item on the urban renewal of Naples at that time.) If,
in the mind's eye, you strip that road away, you have
the modern Public Gardens, the Villa Comunale, which
can still be said to connect the two ends of the long
stretch of waterfront between Santa Lucia and
Mergellina. Those gardens were built in the 1780s.
Before that park was put in place on reclaimed land,
the whole stretch was a beachfront with water rolling
up approximately to where the road, Riviera di
Chiaia, now runs along the inside of the
gardens, 100 yards from the modern seafront.
Mergellina, itself—before
that date—was pretty much isolated, except by sea and
a single road leading down from the Posillipo height
directly above, a twisting and steep affair called the
Rampe di San Antonio. That
road comes out near the modern Mergellina train
station. In the days before trains, all you saw when
you got to the bottom was the Roman tunnel (still in
use in those days) called the "Neapolitan Crypt", in
the area called Piedigrotta,
the homonymous church being one of the most famous in
Neapolitan tradition. The modern road, via
Posillipo, that leads from Mergellina west to
the very end of the Posillipo hill was not completed
until the French rule of Naples under Murat, although the Spanish did
build a short stretch in that direction to get from
Mergellina to Villa Donn'Anna.
The Spanish, then, are the ones who started the
development that would eventually incorporate
Mergellina into "greater Naples". That development was continued under the short, but
productive, period of the Austrian
vicerealm and then, of course, the Bourbons.
Sannazzaro Portrait of Sannazzaro by Titian
Sannazzaro wrote at an interesting time in Italy. In spite of the enormous influence of Dante's Divina Commedia (written in the vernacular), men of letters and, generally, all educated persons, were expected to have a command of Latin. Scholarly writing was still all in Latin, throughout Europe. Poetry and other literature—well, that gave you a bit more leeway. Sannazzaro wrote his De partu Virginis in
Latin; it is little read today, but at the time, it
earned him the nick-name of "the Christian Virgil." He
also wrote in Italian (called "Tuscan" at the time,
since Dante had been a Tuscan), as in Arcadia (1504), a
masterpiece that instituted the theme of Arcadia, an
idyllic land, in European literature. That work had an
enormous influence on subsequent European literature.
He also recast Neapolitan proverbs into Italian and
published them. Sannazzaro was a member of the famed
Accademia founded by Giovanni
Pontano and wrote under the pseudonym of Actius
Syncerus; he eventually headed the Academy. His verses
in Italian are part of the body of literature that
helped form that language in the Middle Ages. A main
square, one block from Mergellina harbor, is named for
him. to portal for architecture
& urban planning |
And that
road, Riviera di Chiaia, was laid in the 1600s
to accommodate the new and exclusive Spanish mansions
that were wending their way ever to the west towards
Mergellina. The first villa—at the east end of the Villa
Comunale, still a mile from Mergellina—was the Palazzo
Ravaschieri di Satriano, a building from 1605
(photo, left). It was prime beachfront property 400
years ago. (Much later, Goethe mentions the building
with fondness in his Italian Journeys. He
speaks of a lovely and enigmatic woman. He discreetly
avoids detailing his notorious womanizing but he is
probably talking about donna Teresa Filangieri, the
wife of Filippo Ravaschieri, owner of the villa at the
time. In this photo—on the hill in the background—
Mergellina's favorite son
is, no doubt, the poet