The Riding School in the Royal Palace of Naples: Transformations ...

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In conclusion a noteworthy constructive knowledge can be recognized to Niccolini in facing the special service conditions due to the new functions to be assigned to the attic. THE ROYAL PALACE OF NAPLES AND ITS RIDING SCHOOL The construction of the Royal Palace of Naples took place for desire of Viceroy Fernandez Ruiz de Castro, in 1600, to accommodate the Spanish King and his court when staying in Naples. The job was assumed by Domenico Fontana (1543-1607), a famous architect of papal court, but its realization went on for centuries, and was almost completed only in 1848 by Gaetano Genovese (1795-1875). Particularly, apart of the royal apartments, the Palace was enriched with all the facilities which characterised the great Courts of Europe: gardens, the Court Theatre, and the Riding School. The last one was a typical structure of royal residences, and is also present in the most important military barracks, where it is assigned to indoor training exercises. As quoted by Donghi in his Manual of Architecture, (Donghi 1923, Vol. II, Part I, Section 1), riding schools usually had quite small dimensions, from a maximum of 52.5 x 21 metres to a minimum of 38 x18 metres. Larger ones also had galleries to allow public attending equestrian exercises. So these riding schools were different from large exercise halls, conceived for military training in countries with very cold weather, and also used for military parades and shows in presence of numerous public, like the Darmstradt exercise hall, built in 1771 (Ceraldi 2003) or the Manesh, built in Moscow in 1818 by Betancourt, whose description is reported in Rondelet’s Treatise (Rondelet 1833), both having timber trusses covering structures, with a span of about 42.00 and 50.00 m, respectively. In Italy an interesting example is represented by the riding school belonging to the complex of Scuderie della Pace, built in Florence between 1865 and 1868; the rectangular hall, now housing a gallery of plaster casts, is about 40 x 20 metres and is covered by timber trusses at view, (Caselli 2005). For the present case, in any way, the riding schools built near the great European courts are more significant; the most famous is the Spanish riding school in Vienna, built for Emperor Leopold I in 1681, and restored in 1735 by the architect Josef Emanuel Fischer von Erlach (1693-1742). In this category can’t be ignored the riding schools realized by Giacomo Quarenghi (1744-1817), who was the court architect of tsarina Catherine II, from 1779, when he moved to San Pietroburgo: the Imperial Guards Riding School, built in 1801 besides the Imperial Palace, and the Royal Riding School in Munich, built for the King of Bavaria, both described in the original drawings of the author, (Quarenghi 1845). Apart from the climatic differences, the riding schools were also present in the Kingdom of Naples, during the eighteenth century, in strong connection with the royal residences. The presence of a covered space for training horses seems in this case a necessary adjoin to other related functions, often housed outside the royal palace, as stables or coaches depots, as well as residences for the 600
equired staff: pageboys, coachmen, equerries. Some unpublished drawings dating to the second half of the eighteenth century (SBN, b. 27 A (71 1-4 ), related to the riding school built by Charles of Bourbon at Mascabruno Palace for the utility of the new Royal Palace in Portici, show the presence, in the north-west angle of the complex, of a large space named “covered manege”, a rectangular hall with double height, directly accessible from the courtyard (Tempone 2005). A similar structure was provided also in the new stables which Charles intended to establish in the Calabritto Palace in Naples. The relative nearness of this noble building to the Royal Palace and its inveterate missing of spaces induced the king to buy the Calabritto Palace in 1738, to house the large apparatus of horses and coaches of the court. A design drawing, dating to the same age, signed by Antonio Canevari (1681-1750?), shows the large amount of transformations and enlargements advised for the building to create stables for about four hundred horses, coaches depots and residences for soldiers and officers. In this drawing it is evident the presence of a space, situated on the north-east side of the courtyard, labelled as covered riding school in the drawing legend. Also in this case it is a rectangular room, whose regularity is interrupted on one side by the stairs giving access to the upper floor. It is probable that the failing of this project of transformation of the Calabritto Palace - which without any modification will be sold to the previous owner in 1754 – forced the king into deciding to situate the royal riding school inside the Neapolitan Royal Palace. Starting from 1760, a large square named “square of the riding school”, in the place of the ancient viceroy’s gardens was build. As can be seen in some planning of the end of eighteenth century (ASSN Drawing by unknown hand, Royal Palace of Naples, Plan of the piano nobile (fig.1); Naples, Museum of San Martino: Topographic map of the city of Naples and of its borders, 1750-55, Tav. 18, by G. Carafa) and from a model of the complex of the Royal Palace made by Antonio Niccolini in 1811, (fig.2), (held in the Museum of the Historical Apartments of the Royal Palace), this square is enclosed on the south side by the eighteenth century expansion of the palace, named new arm, and, on the side near Castel Nuovo, by some low constructions used as stables and factories. A narrow portico on the west side connects the new arm to the St. Charles Theatre, while on the north side, the square is delimited by the theatre and the riding school, object of the present study. The space is of rectangular shape. The elevation on the square, where there is the main entrance, is divided by a sequence of round arched openings, marked by pilasters. Inside each of them there are two superimposed windows, square in the lower level and with flat arches in the upper one. An high masonry strip divides the arcades from the lower end of the two slopes roof. A required datum for the study of the covering structures of the riding school is the approximate dating of its construction. As a quo limit, the year 1737 can be taken with certainty, being the building date of the St Charles Theatre; in fact the riding school connects to it perpendicularly, showing no alignment with the standing wall of the viceroy’s garden. There are no surveys suggesting that the construction was a transformation of a previous one, built by Antonio Domenico Vaccaro (1678–1750) to house the Farnese Collection successively transferred in the Royal Palace of Capodimonte (Mascilli Migliorini 2001). Also there is no evidence for the identification of the 601
Page 1: The Riding School in the Royal Pala
Page 5 and 6: Figure 2. Model of Naples Royal Pal
Page 7 and 8: Figure 4. Front page of the documen
Page 9 and 10: Measures of weight, also used to qu
Page 11 and 12: The clear span is the same of that
Page 13 and 14: An evident element thought to stren
Page 15 and 16: As just described, the structure is
Page 17 and 18: Figure 12. Bending moments diagram
Page 19 and 20: Both the calculation schemes analyz

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