 main index © Jeff Matthews 2002-2012 entry Nov 2009 The Quisisana
Palace in Castellammare
Quisisana
is now part of the town of Castellammare di Stabia, at
the beginning of the Sorrentine peninsula. The name
apparently derives from Qui-si-sana (“Here you get
healthy”), for here is where the Swabian dynasty, the
Hohenstaufens (Frederick II),
way back in the 1200s decided to build a royal
residence on a hillside at about 400 feet above the
sea so they could look out over the bay and get
healthy. The other story is that the residence was
built by Robert of Anjou
in 1310 after a miraculous cure happened in the area.
In any case—here is where you get well again. Over the
centuries there have been various villas built on the
grounds. In one form or another, they were a popular
stop for artists and writers (even Boccaccio set parts
of his Decamerone
here). In the 1500s the property came into possession
of the Farnese family.
Elizabeth Farnese, the Queen Consort of Spain was the
mother of Charles III of
Bourbon, who then inherited the property. In the
1730s he became the first king of Bourbon Naples. The
villa was then remade into a typically sumptuous
Bourbon estate. The recently restored building that
you see today (photo, below) is that Bourbon villa
from the late 1700s. Thus, Quisisana was inhabited by
various members of the dynasties that ruled the
kingdom of Naples, right up to when Giuseppe Garibaldi used the
Bourbon villa as a hospital for his men during his
conquest of the kingdom in 1861, leading to the
unification of Italy. The
property was appropriated by the new Italian state and
then sold to the town of Castellammare in 1879. The
premises were about 12 acres; they contained the
two-story main mansion with 100 rooms and typical
royal trappings: workshops for making candles and
saddles, riding grounds, two stables, a farm house, a
church, various quarters for servants, and a five-acre
park.
Quisisana
is now restored, but to what end nobody seems to know.
Proposals have been made to turn it into (1) an
archaeological museum, or (2) a school for the
restoration of art and antiques, or (3) a deluxe
hotel, or (4) a gambling casino. The point of all
these proposals is to help turn Castellammare around
economically. Compared to nearby Pompeii and Sorrento,
the town of Castellammare has never really been much
of a tourist attraction to begin with. For centuries,
the town worked for a living—the shipbuilder’s trade;
the town was the site of very successful shipyards for
centuries. That trade, too, has fallen upon hard
times. Since the
Royal Palace of Quisisana was restored two years ago
it has been the venue for occasional classical music
concerts, classes in art restoration and exhibits of
some of the considerable archaeological treasures in
the area, but the premises are really just sitting
there, waiting for a decision. |
The “Royal Palace
at Quisisana” is practically unknown even to those who
know the area; yet it lays claim to being the first
such royal residence in the north of the ancient
Kingdom of Naples, older even than the 
Quisisana
became the Hotel Margherita in 1898, but remained
little used for a number of years. It was a hospital
in WWI, converted to a luxury hotel in the early
1930s, became a hospital again in WWII and was
abandoned in the 1960s; the 1980 earthquake pretty
much finished off what was left. Plans for restoration
were drawn up in 1994 and work started in 2002.