A large square with covered paths that can be enjoyed at any time of the day in a historically infamous area of the San Ferdinando district, despite its proximity to the Royal Palace and other important city monuments.
It was with this objective that at the end of the 19th century a demanding urban redevelopment project was begun in the Santa Brigida area, occupied since the sixteenth century by tall buildings separated by very narrow alleys perpetually in the shade and made unlivable by terrible hygienic conditions. as well as the frequency with which acts of violence were recorded between taverns and brothels. Thus, the Redevelopment, which was already changing the face of other parts of the city centre with the same problems, opened the way to the total renovation of that space with a monumental work, extraordinarily innovative from an architectural point of view: a large commercial gallery with a iron and glass roof, inspired by the one inaugurated in Milan only ten years earlier.
The competition between designers saw the idea of engineer Emmanuele Rocco prevail, then integrated by Antonio Curri and Ernesto Di Mauro. It was a four-armed gallery, intersecting in the centre in an octagonal cruise covered by a vault designed by Paolo Boubèe. It began with the demolition of the old unhealthy buildings starting from May 1, 1887, with the exception of Palazzo Capone. In November of that same year the foundation stone of the new building was laid. It was inaugurated on 19 November 1890 and it was decided to name the Gallery after King Umberto I, as a sign of gratitude for the support ensured to the city during and after the last cholera epidemic, which started the process of urban rehabilitation.
There are four entrances to the Gallery: via Toledo to the north, via San Carlo to the west, via Santa Brigida to the east and via Verdi to the south.
On Via San Carlo, right in front of the famous theatre of the same name, there is the main entrance with an exedra façade with an architraved portico, supported by travertine columns and with two blind arches, one above the gallery and one above the ambulatory. The windows on the first floor are serliana windows alternating with pairs of pilaster strips with composite style capitals; on the second, there are mullioned windows with the same pilaster motif; the windows of the attic are in pairs, square, and the pilasters have Tuscan capitals. On the columns of the right arch the decorative element represents the four seasons, Work and the Genius of Science; on the pediment, Wealth is represented in the centre and, on the sides, semi-reclining, Commerce and Industry. The columns of the left arch are dedicated, however, to the four continents, Physics on the left and Chemistry on the right; on the pediment, Abundance in the centre, and, lying down, the Telegraph on the right and Steam on the left. Various classical deities are represented in the circles on the ceiling. The same motifs are repeated on the smaller façades.
On Via Toledo, among the friezes we can distinguish two pairs of cherubs and the symbols of the Seggio di Porta Capuana (a restrained horse) and the Portanova (a door). On Via Santa Brigida, in addition to the cherubs, you can see the emblems of the Seggio di Porto (the marine man) and the Seggio di Montagna (mountains). On the sides of the arch, panels are dedicated to War and Peace. On Via Verdi, however, the emblems of the Seggio di Nido (an unbridled horse) and the Seggio del Popolo (a large P) are in evidence; on the sides of the arch panels evoke Abundance with cultivated land, while navigation symbolizes Wealth; along the road, a marble plaque commemorates that Goethe lived there.
The architectural and artistic works inside
Inside the Gallery, four buildings rise on the four sides, all of which have their entrances in the central octagon. The façades are the same, with the lower register marked by smooth hand-painted pilasters, which frame the shops and the upper mezzanines. On the first floor there are serliane windows, mullioned windows on the second and square windows on the third.
The four arms of the Gallery, covered by iron and glass structures that let in natural light, create a large square in the center, surmounted by a dome also in iron and glass that looms large in the panorama of that quadrant of the city with the its summit reaching 57 metres, its height over 34 metres, its length 147 metres, its width 15, its dome 57 metres, its width 15, its height 34 and a half, its length 147 metres.
In the eight plumes of the dome eight female figures are depicted holding up as many chandeliers. In the fans all the decorations can be traced back to music, while the drum bears a semicircle decoration of forests with a recurring motif of triangles intertwined to form stars of David. The winds and the Zodiac are represented on the mosaic floor, relocated after the last war which destroyed all the glass parts. All signs attributable to Masonic symbolism, which tell a fundamental aspect of the genesis of the Gallery, where it is no coincidence that it is the historical headquarters of the Grand Orient of Italy.
There is also a museum inside the Gallery. It is located on the second floor of the main facade overlooking Via San Carlo. It is the Ascione Coral Museum, set up by what is considered the oldest coral factory in Torre del Greco, founded in 1855 by Giovanni Ascione. The exhibition area is divided into two sections. The first traces the history of fishing and the transformation of coral into high-quality jewellery, showing fishing equipment and coral processing techniques. A subsection is entirely dedicated to cameos. The second section is entirely reserved for coral jewels and cameos created between the 19th century and the 1940s.
Two years after its opening, the Gallery hosted the headquarters of the newspaper "Il Mattino", founded in 1892 by Eduardo Scarfoglio and Matilde Serao.
The first cinema in Naples and the Salone Margherita
The Gallery was designed and built as a large shopping centre in the centre of the city, a place for meeting, walking and also having fun. For this reason, in addition to the numerous commercial activities that settled there since it opened, in 1896 the first cinema in Naples was opened there, one of the first in Italy, where the films of the Lumière brothers were screened. The Paduan Mario Recanati was the father of the innovation which immediately found favor with the public, who were always very numerous under the skylights of the Gallery, which soon became the centre of the city's social life.
Under the Gallery, large rooms were intended for the Salone Margherita, which established itself as the main place of leisure and entertainment during the Art Nouveau period.
Inaugurated on 15 November 1890, the Hall was initially dedicated to chamber concerts, and then became a café chantant, in the wake of the most famous ones already very successful in Paris, and a point of reference for the light entertainment of the Neapolitan Belle Ėpoque. It was frequented by figures such as Gabriele D'Annunzio, Salvatore Di Giacomo, Ferdinando Russo, Eduardo Scarfoglio, Francesco Crispi. The decline began already with the First World War, after the Second World War it became a temple of vaudeville and then of drama until it closed in 1962. Reopened in recent years, it opens for special events and evenings.
