Castel Sant’Elmo a Napoli

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 preserved in the sacristy of the church, located on the Piazza d’Armi of the Castle. The castle was often used in the following centuries as a prison; 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 incarcerated there.

After being a Bourbon stronghold, it served as a military prison until 1952. Subsequently, the fortress passed to the Military State Property until 1976, when a massive restoration project began, carried out by the Provincial Office for Public Works of Campania. The works made it possible to recover the original structure, making visible the ancient paths, patrol walkways, and underground environments, where a large Auditorium was created. In 1982, the monumental complex was entrusted to the Superintendence for Artistic and Historical Heritage of Naples. Today the castle houses the offices of the Directorate of the Campania Museum Hub and the Museo del Novecento in Naples.

The Castle has been the venue in the last thirty years of numerous exhibitions of ancient and contemporary art but also of an intense activity of musical, cinema, and theater festivals. What makes this monumental site unique are the stands, from which one can admire a spectacular panorama of the entire surrounding territory, from the islands to Vesuvius, from the Phlegraean Fields to the Matese mountains.