Complex of Sant’Antoniello a Port’Alba

by Paola Vitolo

The human sciences library (BRAU) of Federico II University is hosted by the Franciscan Sant’Antoniello in Port’Alba monastery.
In 1987, the local City Council granted free use of the building to the University which then conducted renovation work between 2000 and 2004.
The foundation of Sant'Antoniello, in 1553, occurred thanks to Paola Cappellano who was a nun of the Monastery of Jesus near Porta San Gennaro.
The scenic 18th-century double-ramp staircase, which forms the backdrop to one of the sides of Piazza Bellini, enhances a complex of little architectural merit, but of great historical interest, as it bears witness to the rich urban stratification of the area.
Located in the northwestern corner of the ancient walls, remnants of which can be seen in the square and inside the monastery itself, and bordered on the north by the valley where Piazza Cavour is today, the high ground on which Sant'Antoniello was built has an ancient monastic vocation, which was consolidated between the 16th and 17th centuries.
Since the fifteenth century, the tranquility of the area and the availability of land had also encouraged the construction of grandiose noble palaces, including those of Onorato Caetani, count of Fondi and duke of Traetto, and Scipione Pandone, count of Venafro and duke of Boiano, which would be purchased in the sixteenth century by Ferdinand Alarcón, captain of the Spanish army.
The upper-residential destination of the district was progressively strengthened during the sixteenth century, when a tight succession of palaces sprang up along the line marked by the walls ordered by Don Pedro of Toledo (today's Via Costantinopoli).
In 1622, Port'Alba and the street of the same name were opened, and a series of interventions enhanced the area, including a road network connected to the urban one and the arrangement of the walking surface of the current Piazza Bellini, characterized by jumps in elevation and conditioned by the ancient artifacts.
The first Sant'Antoniello house was more modest, squeezed between the properties of neighboring convents and those of the Alarcóns.
The latter were progressively acquired by the nuns, who were thus able to enlarge their premises.
Such purchases included the former Palazzo Caetani (identifiable with the building where the Brau stands today) in 1553.
In 1637 another acquisition was the former Palazzo Pandone (which had meanwhile passed from the Alarcón to the Di Capua, principi of Conca), adjacent to the Caetani and overlooking what is now Piazza Bellini.
The layout of the interior space of the first building still shows traces of its original structure today, in various places including worked tufa window frames, placed on the facades toward Conca Palace and toward the Wisdom Monastery, and on the interior wall on the Via Costantinopoli street side.
The arrangement of the spaces revolved around a trapezoidal-shaped cloister built with tufa pillars and piperno bases, materials partly from a porched structure of the earlier palace.
The cloister was surrounded by cells, collective rooms, and the church.
The latter, whose designers are unknown but which appears to have been consecrated in 1579, was rebuilt after the earthquakes of 1688 and 1694 by architect Arcangelo Guglielmelli, but subsequent interventions, including the construction of the choir above the entrance hall and the new sacristy, make it difficult to judge his work.
The single hall, which lacks a transept, has no side chapels, but the arches carved into the wall thickness accommodate altars made of inlaid marble slabs.
The high altar, crafted with the same technique, is the work of Giovan Battista Nauclerio and dates from 1723.
The square choir is surmounted by a dome that rests on deep arches, and the entire interior is covered in white stucco, highlighting the articulation of the architectural structure.
The wooden coffered ceiling was replaced in the 19th century.
On the other hand, work on adapting the Pandone-Conca Palace to the needs of the cloister began in 1645, but earthquakes brought continuous setbacks and made it necessary to intervene on the earlier buildings.
Meanwhile, steps were also being taken to organically connect the two cores of the monastery through the closing of the alley that originally separated them and the creation of a hanging staircase (subsequently walled up), an example of the loggias with which aerial connections over roads were created in the viceregal city.
The facade of the palace, now used for private housing, retains traces of its long history and progressive adaptations to different functions in the various sizes of its openings and cornices.
In addition, in the base, large smooth square blocks of piperno can be seen forming the original level of the square's elevation, which was three meters above the present one.

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