What to see · San Giorgio a Cremano

More places of interest

• Villa Bruno

  Villa Bruno is a Vesuvian villa on via Cavalli di Bronzo in San Giorgio a Cremano, owned by the municipality. It has long been the town's cultural centre: it hosts concerts, events, the Troisi prize for young comedians, municipal offices and associations, and since 2002 the town library, created from a large donation by Cavaliere Giacinto Fioretti; for this reason it is also called the Palace of Vesuvian Culture. It belonged first to the Monteleone and then to the Lieto family, who several times hosted Cardinal Luigi Ruffo Scilla, Archbishop of Naples, here for his holidays.

  What to see

  From 1816 the villa housed the foundry of Francesco Righetti, Antonio Canova's trusted founder: here the horses were cast for the two great equestrian statues of Charles of Bourbon and Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, commissioned from Canova and placed in 1829 in piazza del Plebiscito in Naples. On either side of the wrought-iron gate, two medallions with bronze horse heads recall that casting; on the left is the large foundry building, in yellow tuff, which the Bruno family later turned into a glassworks.

  The plan is eighteenth-century, but the look is neoclassical. The inner courtyard, paved in piperno stone, has at its centre a bronze Pulcinella by the sculptor Lello Esposito; the old stables open on the right. The atrium leads to the garden, crossed by a tuff-paved avenue that ends to the south in a small shrine with a statue; on the right is the open-air arena dedicated to Nino Taranto, on the left statues of Greco-Roman gods and a glasshouse originally meant for medicinal plants. The Bust of Jupiter, the villa's oldest Greco-Roman statue, is displayed in the vestibule.

  Visiting

  The piano nobile keeps Rococo doors and nineteenth-century decoration; the curved pediment of the rear front frames a terracotta statue of Saint Januarius giving a blessing. Library and event times should be checked with the municipality.

  Our editors' tip

  Stand at the entrance gate: the villa's axis is aligned so that the eye passes through atrium and vestibule to the Baroque shrine at the far end of the garden.

• Villa Vannucchi

  Villa Vannucchi is one of the monumental villas of the Miglio d'Oro, in San Giorgio a Cremano. It was commissioned by Giacomo d'Aquino, seventh Prince of Caramanico and gentleman of the chamber to Charles of Bourbon, who in 1755 bought from the heirs of Giovanni Battista Imparato a palatial house, a Roman-style casino and a farm with woodland. In 1851 the villa was sold to Count Carlo Van den Heuvel and in 1912 to the Vannucchi family, who gave it its name; in the time of Joachim Murat, as the «Villa e delizie dei d'Aquino detti di Caramanico», it was a meeting place for the Neapolitan nobility, with parties run by Princess Teresa Lembo.

  What to see

  The design was entrusted to Antonio Donnamaria, an architect of Vaccaro's school, who drew the street front with a rhythmic pattern of giant Corinthian stucco pilasters, alternating with two tiers of balconies with wrought-iron railings; in front of the piano nobile windows are plain curved pediments. Inside, the decoration is in Rococo stucco, and the villa also includes a chapel of the Immaculate Conception, a sacristy, a music room and a former stable turned into a theatre.

  The rear front, with arches, loggias and porticoes, opens onto the Italian garden designed by Pompeo Schiantarelli in 1783. A long avenue runs from an exedra-shaped screen at the end of the courtyard to a monumental fountain with four basins set diagonally; from here fourteen avenues radiate to the edge of the property. The garden still has camphor trees, pines, holm oaks, palms, magnolias, cedars, mimosas and apricot trees.

  Visiting

  Badly damaged by the 1980 earthquake, the villa passed to the municipality and was restored until 2006; in 2009 the park was also completed, remade on the basis of the eighteenth-century map. Today it hosts cultural events; according to the sources the park is open every day, but times and events should be checked.

  Our editors' tip

  Anyone who has seen Ricomincio da tre by Massimo Troisi, who was born in San Giorgio a Cremano, will recognise the villa: it appears in the film's opening scenes, when Lello Arena shouts for Troisi at the top of his voice.

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