The Castel Sant’Elmo represents one of the most significant examples of sixteenth-century military architecture. It took on its current appearance following the fortification works commissioned by the viceroy Don Pedro of Toledo and carried out on a project by the architect Luigi Scrivà. The latter conceived a stellar plant with six points that protrude twenty meters from the central part.
The first news relating to Castel Sant'Elmo indicate it, around 1275, as a fortified Angevin residence, called Belforte; it was subsequently Robert of Anjou in 1329 who wanted the enlargement of the palatium and the task was entrusted to Tino di Camaino, then engaged in the construction of the nearby Certosa di San Martino.
The current configuration with the six-pointed star system is instead due to the sixteenth-century reconstruction, commissioned, between 1537 and 1547, by Don Pedro de Toledo during the Spanish viceroyalty. The project was carried out by the Spanish military architect Pedro Luis Escrivà.
The first castellan of Sant'Elmo was Don Pedro de Toledo, cousin of the viceroy, who died in 1558, whose funerary monument is kept in the sacristy of the church, located on the Piazza d'Armi of the Castle.
The castle was often used over the following centuries as a prison, where Tommaso Campanella, accused of heresy, and later the patriots of the Neapolitan revolution of 1799 such as Gennaro Serra, Mario Pagano and Luigia Sanfelice were imprisoned. After being a Bourbon garrison, it was a military prison until 1952. Subsequently the fortress passed to the military property until 1976, the year in which an impressive restoration work began by the Superintendency of Public Works of Campania. The works made it possible to recover the original structure, making visible the ancient paths, the patrol walkways and the underground rooms, where a large Auditorium was built.
Castel Sant’Elmo
Address: Via Tito Angelini 80129
Phone: +39 081 2294449
Site:
http://www.polomusealecampania.beniculturali.itLocation inserted by
stefano vigolo