Castel Sant'Elmo, the fortress that dominates Naples

About this activity

Castel Sant'Elmo, located in Largo San Martino, dominates Naples from the Vomero hill. This fortress is a constant reference whenever you look up at the sky of Naples.

Why visit Castel Sant'Elmo

Castel Sant'Elmo is a medieval castle, now a museum, located on the Vomero hill near San Martino in Naples. The castle was built around 1300 in the same place where a chapel dedicated to St. Erasmus stood in the 10th century, hence Eramo, Ermo and finally Elmo, the present name of the fortress.to.

Castel Sant'Elmo is shaped like a six-pointed star, and there are wide corridors along the top of the ramparts that are still practicable today. With its large embrasures placed on the ramparts and high walls surrounded by a deep moat, it was a structure that lent itself perfectly to strategic-defensive tasks.

The "Follow the Shape" project: the tactile landscape in Braille

Paolo Puddu, winning the Young Artists Competition, wanted to tell the story of the panorama: in this way, even blind people will be able to go on an inner journey, where the words of writers and poets dedicated to Naples will allow them to get to know the city and the landscape. To experience an emotion it is not necessary to observe it: imagination has no limits, and this is possible thanks to the Braille language that follows the handrail of the walkways that circumscribe Piazza d'Armi.

History of Castel Sant'Elmo

Originally this mighty building (the city's first castle by extent), partly carved out of the living rock (the famous yellow Neapolitan tuff), was a Norman observation tower called Belforte, and it was Robert of Anjou who commissioned the architect Tino da Camaino in 1325 to build the Palatium castrum, work on which was completed in 1343 during the reign of Joan I of Anjou.

Since then the Castle was besieged several times because of its strategic location (250 meters above sea level) and control over the roads of Naples, and was a military target especially during the dispute between the Spanish and French for the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples. Between 1537 and 1547 Castel Sant'Ermo, later called St. Elmo's, was rebuilt on the commission of Spanish Viceroy Don Pedro de Toledo and assumed its present six-pointed star plan.

In 1587 lightning, which fell in the powder magazine, struck the castle, destroying the castellan and military dwellings, as well as the inner church. The building was then rebuilt between 1599 and 1610 by architect Domenico Fontana.

Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the castle turned into a prison, where the philosopher was also imprisoned Thomas Campanella. Castel Sant'Elmo was also the site of revolutionary uprisings in 1799, when it was taken by the people and besieged by republicans who proclaimed the Neapolitan Republic in the Piazza d'Armi. The fortress, after the collapse of the republic, became a prison again, where Giustino Fortunato, Domenico Cirillo and Luisa Sanfelice, among others, were imprisoned. Castel Sant'Elmo would remain a military prison until 1952.

It was not until the 1980s that Castel Sant'Elmo became a structure of cultural and museum interest, and since 1982 the entire monumental complex has been entrusted to the custody of the Superintendence for Artistic and Historical Heritage of Naples, finally being opened to the public in 1988.

Curiosity about Castel Sant'Elmo

• From the striking Square of Arms there is an incredible view of the entire Bay of Naples, the historic center and the waterfront. Also worth a visit are the Hermit's Cave, the prisons of common and distinguished prisoners, and the Castellan's Tower, whose rooms represent what remains of the castle commander's and staff's quarters. The paving of the forecourt is from the time of construction. Then there is the small church of St. Erasmus, located at the top of the large square, which was built by Spanish architect Pietro Prati in 1547 and completely rebuilt by architect Domenico Fontana.
• Castel Sant'Elmo hosts temporary art exhibitions and displays, as well as festivals and theater and music festivals. The castle is the permanent home of the Museo Napoli Novecento 1910/1980, a museum that collects works created by Neapolitan artists during the 20th century, including sculptures, paintings and graphic experiments. Among the artists are Enrico Baj and Mimmo Paladino.
• From 1998 until 2011, during the spring Castel Sant'Elmo was the venue for Napoli Comicon (since 2012 then moved to the Mostra d'Oltremare).
• In 1416 Queen Joanna II sold it for the sum of ten thousand five hundred ducats to Alfonso of Aragon.

The Grand Debutante Ball

Castel Sant'Elmo also hosts the Nunziatella Military School's Grand Debutante Ball, one of the most significant events of Neapolitan social life and the longest-running in Italy (it has been going on since 1799). The ball has a centuries-old tradition dating back to the 18th century: in the aristocratic tradition of the time, the event allowed young women to enter high society and allowed them to meet the cadets of the military school, one of the oldest in the world. Only in more recent times has the Debutante Ball begun to coincide with the end of the cycle of studies of the young students of the Nunziatella: it marks, in fact, the countdown to the last hundred days of their stay in the "Red Manor" of Pizzofalcone.