THE ROYAL PALACE: AN HISTORIC VENUE FOR THE FESTIVAL

For yet another year, Campania Libri Festival will be hosted at Naples’ Royal Palace.

With over three centuries of history, this royal space has long been the center of power for much of southern Italy and it still serves today almost as a city’s gateway to the sea, thanks to its privileged view of Piazza Plebiscito and Naples’ Bay.

Inside, a series of porticoes, courtyards and gardens leading to rooms once inhabited by the royal court and now largely musealized, as well as being home to cultural institutions such as Naples’ National Library, the Soprintendenza Archeologica Belle Arti e Paesaggio (Superintendence for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscapes) and San Carlo Theatre.

In this setting, the stands of publishing houses will line the historical courtyards of the Palace, while meetings will be hosted in the following spaces: Court Theatre; Royal Chapel; Hercules’ Hall; Hall XXIV; Southern Porch; Conference Hall and Premio Napoli Hall.

COURTYARD OF HONOUR

The Courtyard of Honour, formerly used for ceremonial purposes, is the oldest courtyard of the Palace. Directly connected to Piazza Plebiscito, it is characterized by a double loggia crowned by five piperno arches, while the upper floor has large windows. In the vanishing point of the 17th–century space lies the Fountain of Fortune, a work by Giuseppe Canart commissioned by King Charles of Bourbon and placed here in the 19th century.

COURT THEATRE

Multiplicity

Designed by architect Ferdinando Fuga for the wedding between Maria Carolina of Austria and Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, the Court Theatre is adorned with white and gold stucco decorations; the royal box and sculptures are made of papier-mâché and date back to the 18th century. On the vault we can admire depictions of The Marriage between Poseidon and Amphitrite and Allegories and Landscapes, as a result of renovations carried out following World War II, which also affected the main stage. The hall has a maximum capacity of 400 seats.

ROYAL CHAPEL

Lightness

The Royal Chapel, dedicated to the Madonna Assunta, was built and furnished between 1643 and the end of the 17th century. The current environment is the result of decorative arrangements dated to the 19th century and post-war restoration: in fact, the building survived the bombing of 1943, when the Chapel lost its religious function. Superbly decorated, the Chapel is noteworthy for its 16th-century wooden door and the semiprecious stones decorating the scenic backdrop of the room, in which agates, lapis lazuli, amethysts and onyx stand out. The hall has a maximum capacity of 100 seats.

HERCULES' HALL

Quickness

The room owes its name to the statue of Hercules Farnese, a plaster copy of the one in the famous collection inherited by King Charles III of Bourbon, previously displayed here. The hall – which contained portraits of viceroys in the 17th century – was transformed into a ballroom during the Bourbon era, when it was adorned with a series of hangings from the Royal Factory in Naples, depicting the Stories of Cupid and Psyche. The hall has a maximum capacity of 200 seats.

HALL XXV

Consistency

Room XXIV, also known as Don Quixote’s Room, is part of a series of utility rooms connected to the Queen’s Apartment. It displays nineteen canvases for the series portraying the Stories about the wandering horseman, with a subject inspired by French Rococo imagery. In the 18th century, the paintings were used as a sketch for a series of hangings produced by the Royal Factory of Naples and currently housed at the Quirinale Palace in Rome. The room has a maximum capacity of 40 seats.

SOUTHERN PORCH

Visibility

The Hall of Chandeliers, located on the ground floor of the Palace, can be reached from the 17th-century Courtyard of Honour. This elegant room, once used as a storage room, is notable for its open masonry with piperno partitions, a trace of the original portico designed by Domenico Fontana on the southern side of the palace, which was closed for functional and static reasons in the mid 17th century. The hall has a maximum capacity of 90 seats.

POMPEIAN HALL

Exactitude

Part of a series of rooms belonging to the King’s Apartment, the Pompeian Room was characterized by neoclassical furnishings, placed to complement the archaeological remains from the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii. Usually not open to visitors due to being inside the offices of the Superintendence, the room best represents the sovereign’s intention to recreate the style of Pompeian dwellings, rediscovered and particularly appreciated at the time. The room has a maximum capacity of 30 seats.

CONFERENCE HALL; PREMIO NAPOLI HALL

Flame and Crystal

The Conference Hall (Flame) is located on the ground floor of the Palace, near the entrance from Piazza Trieste e Trento. This space contains structures formerly belonging to the Old Vice Royal Palace, which was demolished in the mid-19th century and whose traces remain in the lowered floor level. Equipped with an integrated audio-visual system and comfortable seating, the room consists of a single space punctuated by lowered white vaults. The room has a maximum capacity of 50 seats.

The Premio Napoli Hall (Crystal), historic headquarters to the homonymous Foundation encouraging Italian cultural production since 1961, is located on the first floor of the building and has a capacity of 50 seats.

THE ROYAL PALACE: AN HISTORIC VENUE FOR THE FESTIVAL