Stazione Marittima di Napoli
Cesare Bazzani built Naples a monumental sea-gate beside Castel Nuovo in 1936 — two long wings of regime-era stone from which, in 1964, Michelangelo’s Pietà sailed for New York.
At a glance
The Stazione Marittima is Naples’s grand passenger terminal on the Molo Angioino, beside the Castel Nuovo. Designed by the architect Cesare Bazzani and built between 1934 and 1936, it was meant to make Naples a great Mediterranean port of the Fascist era: two monumental wings, each some 180 metres long, joined by a bridge, faced in stone and carved with medallions of the world’s ports.
Key facts
- Built: 1934–1936 (competition 1933)
- Architect: Cesare Bazzani
- Style: monumental, “architettura di regime”
- Scale: two wings of about 180 metres each
- Decoration: twelve Trani-stone medallions (world cities and navigation)
- Note: Michelangelo’s Pietà sailed from here for New York in 1964
History
The Fascist regime wanted Naples to be a leading port of the Mediterranean, and in 1933 the Ministry of Public Works held a competition for a new maritime station. Cesare Bazzani, one of the regime’s favoured architects, directed the work; the Ferrobeton company built it from 1934, and it opened in 1936.
The station rose where the old Molo Grande and its lighthouse had stood, swept away for the new terminal. Two long wings, joined above an open ground floor once meant for trains, present a monumental front to the bay. Twelve medallions in Trani stone name ports of the world — Rome, Athens, Cairo, Rio, Calcutta, Naples — and figure sea and air navigation.
From this quay, in 1964, Michelangelo’s Pietà was loaded onto the liner Cristoforo Colombo for the New York World’s Fair. The station still serves cruise and ferry traffic.
What you see
A long symmetrical front of pale stone beside the dark mass of Castel Nuovo, monumental and severe in the official manner of the 1930s. The carved medallions are the chief ornament.
The terminal is in use; the exterior is seen from the port and the Molo Angioino.
Practical information
- A working cruise and ferry terminal
- The monumental façade and its medallions are the architecture
- Beside Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino) and Piazza Municipio
- Allow 15 minutes
Getting there
The Stazione Marittima is on the Molo Angioino, beside Piazza Municipio in central Naples, served by the Municipio metro (Lines 1 and 6).
Nearby
- Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino)
- Piazza del Plebiscito and the Royal Palace
- The Galleria Umberto I
Sources
- Comune di Napoli / FAI
- Cesare Bazzani — architectural literature
- Touring Club Italiano — Napoli
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