Ferdinando Fuga - Work in Kingdom of Naples

Work in Kingdom of Naples

In 1748, he was called to Naples in the team under Luigi Vanvitelli, for the new Bourbon King of Naples Charles III, King of the Two Sicilies. Here Fuga worked as one of the court architects in renovations to the city of Naples, where the king and his progressive minister Bernardo Tanucci were changing the face of the city, opening new neighborhoods, driving new arterial avenues and promoting some social and economic modernizations in the backward kingdom. The immediate part of the urbanistic planning involved important construction of the colossal Albergo dei Poveri with a gray stucco front extending of 354 m. It was intended as a hospice to shelter 8,000 poor from all over the kingdom, (segregated by sex and age) but especially the "street people" of Naples, a project which was realized only in part. Fuga's final design, centered on a hexagonal church, devoted one courtyard to each of the intended social classes— men, women, boys and girls—each with their separate entrance. Construction was begun in July 1751. After the departure of Carlo for Spain, work slowed, and when it finally ceased in 1819, three of Fuga's five courts were completed, as they may be seen today, damaged by the earthquake of 1980 and closed (Serafino).

A second project with an enlightened social cast was the Cimitero delle 366 Fosse ("Cemetery of the 366 Fossae" one for each day of the year) not far from the Albergo, for which Fuga succeeded in obtaining assent from Ferdinand IV in 1762 (Serafino). This project systematized the daily burden of corpses of the poorest Neapolitans that were delivered to the Ospedale and buried in various modes around the outskirts of the city. The cemetery functioned until 1890.

In a third vast public project, Fuga also designed the Granili (1779?), which were more than immense public granaries; they also contained a military arsenal and a ropewalk (since demolished). And a third Bourbon public venture was the ceramic manufactory adjoining the park of Caserta (1771–1772).

In Palermo, the Gothic and Romanesque cathedral complex had developed damage from earthquakes. In 1767, Fuga was entrusted with the reconstruction in the interior, the small subsidiary domes over the nave chaples, and the addition of a tall dome over the crossing. The interior has an unexpected simplicity relative to the eclectic jumbles of styles visible from the exterior.

In Naples, Fuga was called upon in 1768 to transform the grand reception room of the Royal Palace, which had been in general disuse since the court had removed to Caserta, into a court theatre. For private clients he constructed numerous palazzi, notably Palazzo Aquino di Caramanico and Palazzo Giordano, as well as villas for aristocratic patrons. the Villa Favorita at Ercolano, in a manner traditional in Italy, has one façade directly on the street, the other giving on to extensive gardens. In his last work, the facade of the Church of the Gerolamini (ca 1780), which belies its date, he remained essentially a fully Baroque architect.

The paving in colored marbles he designed in 1761 for the basilica of Santa Chiara no longer exists, but his Chapel of the Regi Depositi (1766) remains (Serafino)