It is the largest building in Naples and one of the largest in Europe: the façade is over three hundred metres long. It was willed in 1751 by Charles of Bourbon and designed by Ferdinando Fuga to gather the poor of the whole kingdom in one place, giving them a bed, a job and a rule. The plan called for five courtyards; three were built, and the building was never finished.
What to see
From outside you walk along a wall that seems never to end, marked by windows all the same: it is the architecture of the institution, meant to hold thousands of people and to say so to whoever passes. Inside are the enormous courtyards, corridors hundreds of metres long and the central church left unfinished, with its rough walls.
Over the centuries the building has been a poorhouse, a school, a reformatory and a juvenile court, then it was damaged by the earthquake of the twentieth century and largely abandoned. For years it has been under piecemeal restoration, and some parts reopen for exhibitions, guided visits and events while the works go on.
Visiting
The building is in piazza Carlo III, ten minutes from the archaeological museum; access is limited to the restored areas and tied to the programme of visits and events: check beforehand, because the rest is a building site. An hour.
Our editors' tip
Walk the whole façade from one end to the other, on the pavement: it takes several minutes, and that walk is the most direct way to grasp the scale we are talking about. No photograph can hold it in a single frame, and that is exactly why it was built this way.