Main Building

By Alfredo Buccaro

Within the context of urban renewal, there was a comprehensive effort to renovate and expand the university complex on Via Mezzocannone. Starting in 1891, Engineer Guglielmo Melisurgo developed a preliminary plan for the restructuring and expansion of the existing headquarters, as well as a substantial intervention in the former Caponapoli convents allocated to the University. A year later, he was joined by Engineer Pier Paolo Quaglia, the director of the Office of Art of the Società pel Risanamento. The detailed plans for the expansion and renovation of the university buildings in Naples (Progetto di ampliamento e sistemazione degli edifici universitari in Napoli), along with the metric calculations, were prepared by Quaglia for architectural aspects and by Melisurgo for structural and estimative aspects. They were presented to the Civil Engineering Office in April 1896. As seen in the perspective drawing of the new building facing Corso d'Italia, published a year later in L'Illustrazione Italiana, the structure would consist of three levels, with a centrally protruding main body, similar to the outer extremities. Above the rusticated base, the approved façade displays two rows of arched openings enclosed by giant Corinthian pilasters: the central zone and the wings are crowned with pediments, while the intermediate sections feature a continuous attic. A tall pavilion dome made of iron and glass, clearly inspired by Antonelli, would dominate the building, whose entrance, designed like a triumphal arch, is shown in the illustration as surmounted by a Corinthian loggia. Criticism from numerous intellectuals following the presentation of the plans at the University Library led to a strong protest movement, led by Benedetto Croce, against the planned destruction of so many former convents for the new clinics in Caponapoli. The opulent formal design adopted in the façades of the new university complex, imbued with Mannerist and Baroque influences, corresponded to a rather fragmented internal layout of the buildings. A long ribbon-like pathway – the new Rampa del Salvatore – in communication with existing ramps would connect old and new buildings, running tangent to the old headquarters and the Rettifilo, and ‘generating’ the buildings of the Chemistry and Physics institutes. The latter would also connect through their main classrooms to the new ‘central staircase and landings’ artery, originating from the new University building and leading to the 18th-century courtyard of the Jesuit complex. In the 1896 plans, the buildings appear to have C-shaped layouts with only two above-ground levels, semicircular bodies attached at multiple points to the prismatic volumes, as well as curved angular connections; in particular, the main classrooms would have had an original lobed plan, with glass domes and an amphitheatre-like internal structure. Although the foundation stone for the building was laid by the Prince of Naples on October 28, 1896, at the beginning of the following year, the issue of the façade was revisited, and the designers themselves disagreed on it. The Minister of Public Works appointed a commission, consisting of Giuseppe Sacconi, Guglielmo Calderini, and Lorenzo Schioppa, to provide the final judgment. Thus, the drafting of the definitive design for the façade, taking into account the commission's recommendations, was requested. However, after Quaglia's death and the submission of a new drawing by Melisurgo, the experts once again did not find it suitable for approval. The engineer then developed four more variations of the façade, one of which was finally adopted in April 1898. The design chosen by the commission proposed a minimal projection and a flat attic crowning for the central body, with a sculptural group in the centre. Furthermore, the two rows of openings corresponding to the two elevated levels would have had respectively curved and triangular pediments. In the final project submitted to the Secretary-General of Public Works in May 1898, Melisurgo simplified the ornaments to the maximum extent, considering the commissioners' latest recommendations, including the removal of the dome, and planned to use pietrarsa stone for the main façade and bricks for the backgrounds. Construction work did not commence until 1899 and was carried out under the direction of Engineer Diego Blesio and Professor Francesco Lomonaco – whom Melisurgo would later on criticize, considering him the true ‘defacer’ of the work. The underground level of the new University building was designated for archives and storage, while the ground floor and the first floor were allocated to the Faculties of Law and Arts and Philosophy. The designers had equipped these levels with a central vestibule connecting to the two main staircases and to foyers leading to classrooms and service staircases located at the ends. The second floor featured the main lecture hall in the central position, flanked by rooms for Faculty councils. In the western wing, the Rector's office, the Secretariat, the Treasury, the cashier's office, and the Academic Council chamber were situated, while the eastern wing housed the classrooms for the teaching profession, the Academic Body chamber, the Medical-Surgical Academy, and the Royal Society. Since 1899, a plaster model had been created by decorator Luigi Sannino, which was initially exhibited at the Encouragement Institute headquarters and later sent, along with the floor plan for the entire University, to the 1900 International Exhibition in Paris and the 1906 Milan Art Exhibition. In 1907, Melisurgo not only complained to the Minister of Public Works, Gianturco, about the lack of recognition of his merits during the aforementioned events, as the credit for the work had been attributed to the engineers of the Genio (Civil Engineering Corps), but also about the alteration of the façade design during the execution phase. What was most absurd was the substitution of Bari travertine slabs for the brickwork originally planned for the backgrounds, thereby departing from a construction tradition that had found authoritative examples in the Royal Palace and the Palace of Studies in Naples. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to identify stylistic models from the facades of the two seventeenth-century buildings in the examined structure, especially in the design of the central elevation and the proportions of the mass walls and openings. Despite everything, the work acquires undeniable architectural value when placed in the context of the façade facing Corso Umberto I. The central pediment hosted a bronze statuary group, sculpted by Francesco Jerace, depicting Frederick II of Swabia establishing the first University of the Kingdom, with prominent figures of the time, including Pier delle Vigne, and allegories at the ends. On the lateral pediments facing Via Mezzocannone and Via Antonio Tari, two other groups, created by Achille D'Orsi, represent Giambattista Vico teaching the New Science and Giordano Bruno before the Inquisition Tribunal. Remarkable decorative work was carried out in the interiors, completed no earlier than 1917. The entrance vestibule, covered by a pavilion vault adorned with a stucco bas-relief, leads to the central atrium. The atrium, defined on all sides by arches and pilasters with Doric pilasters, a frieze with metopes bearing the coats of arms of the provinces, and an upper balcony corresponding to the first floor, is covered by a rich coffered stucco ceiling and directly connects to the external portico linking to the staircase. From the two main staircases, featuring cast iron balustrades and octagonal coffered vaults, one reaches the main lecture hall. The hall is surrounded by twenty polished stucco Corinthian columns, which originally supported statues depicting famous individuals from the history of the University of Naples, from its origins to the 18th century, but were later removed. In the centre of the ceiling, there is a large canvas by Paolo Vetri depicting the school of Pythagoras in Crotone. Among other works, in the Academic Senate room, there is a long perimeter fresco by Gaetano D'Agostino depicting the historic procession of 1616 when the University moved from the convent of San Domenico Maggiore to the Palazzo degli Studi. In the symmetrical Academic Body hall, there is another fresco by the same artist depicting Charles of Bourbon at the excavations of Herculaneum and the founding of the Herculaneum Society. By 1915, the two institutes of Chemistry and Physics had been completed, each adopting a T-shaped floor plan quite different from the initial design, with an octagonal amphitheatre-style classroom at the junction with the central staircase. Their respective facades on Via Mezzocannone and Via Tari, perfectly identical, echoed the design and materials used in the main building's facade, with the addition of Tuscan portico entrances. Architraved passages with columns on the jambs connected the institutes to the third building, providing access to the courtyards and the staircase. Even the latter differed from the original design, connecting halfway through with the Chemistry and Physics classrooms through a square-shaped vaulted structure housing the statuary group featuring the goddess Minerva (1923). This building was defined externally by Ionic Serlian windows flanked by pilasters and crowned with an attic bearing the construction date (1912), a pediment with a clock, and a bronze eagle on the arched pediment. In truth, the new façade of the Salvatore complex facing the ‘central street’ was not very successful, especially in its oblique connection between the entrance to the old Institute of Mineralogy and the staircase. In November 1913, with the inauguration of the two institutes, the extensive university complex began to be utilized. The buildings and their decorative appearance remained unchanged until 1943 when significant destruction occurred due to bombings, fires caused by the Germans after the armistice, and the occupation by Allied forces. This was followed by phases of reconstruction and later interventions to repair the damage from the earthquake in 1980. In recent years, Nicola Pagliara has made original and highly impactful architectural and decorative interventions in the interiors of the main lecture hall, the Rector's office, and the Academic Senate chamber, largely removing the 19th-century appearance.

From the volume "Passeggiando per la Federico II" (second updated edition) edited by Alessandro Castagnaro - photographs by Roberto Fellicò - FedOAPress