Annual report 2004 - Compagnia di San Paolo

Naples: Piazza Bellini
The historic centre of Naples
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Naples and Campania have in recent years been
privileged areas for grants and attention from the
Compagnia. It committed itself in 2004 to supporting the
revitalisation project for Naples historic city centre and in
particular the urban axis of Santa Caterina da Siena and
Piazza Bellini with a grant of € 1 million.
The whole project represents an excellent example of
planning which combines the needs to safeguard the
monuments with those of revitalisation, also on a social
level, of the historic city centre. The two initiatives
originate from co-operation with the City of Naples and
seek to renew the urban fabric, highly precious but greatly
dilapidated, through two characteristic elements of the
city: archaeology and modern art.
The architectural and artistic upgrading of the urban axis
of Santa Caterina da Siena involves an area of
approximately 7,000 square metres, which, set out in
streets and squares, runs from Via Gradoni di Chiaia to
Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Works are planned on highly
prestigious buildings such as Chiesa della Pietà dei
Turchini, Istituto Suor Orsola Benincasa and the Real
Conservatory, starting from Largo Santa Caterina da
Siena passing through Piazza Cariati and continuing
along Via Chiaia. This itinerary will be revitalised with
new lighting, pedestrian precincts, regulation of car
parking, placement of works of modern art in the original
architectural fabric. It deals, therefore, with an urban
programme of works in line with the most modern
principles of conservative restoration and integrated
improvement of the monuments and surrounding spaces.
The second grant involves another jewel of the historic
centre of Naples: Piazza Bellini. The Piazza hosting the
monument to the musician is situated in the heart of the
city right next to the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatory of
Music. In the central part, on a lower level than the street
and surrounded by iron railings the archaeological
excavations can be seen. These date from between the
fifth and fourth centuries B.C. and represent the most
evident testimony of the primitive Greco-Roman city of
Neapolis.
The general revitalisation project involves an area of
1,850 square metres, including works for the redefinition
of the altimetry and for the production of a new road
surface. Inside this in order to obtain a single sloping
walking surface, inside which the original elements take
shape again (the excavation, the monument, the central
palm tree) also allowing an improved reading of the
precious facades of the buildings facing onto the square
and the optimisation of its public use. Part of the
interventions of the excavations in order to enhance the
archaeological features, presently not accessible and
difficult to maintain. They also involve the restoration of
the monument to Bellini, with restoration works and the
insertion of copies of female statues which will return it to
its original form as one of the most cherished symbols of
Neapolitan tradition.