After the incredible success of the exhibition of the treasure, recently rediscovered by the town councillor Guida, the jewels that once belonged to the charitable Istituto of the Real Casa of SS Annunziata will be displayed for the first time ever.
Hundreds of bracelets, necklaces, ex-voto, rings and watches will be joined up with the altar clothes and holy vessels that are already on display in Maschio Angioino. These objects have been considered of great artistic interest during the Maggio dei Monumenti in 2010.
The Istituto of the Real Casa of SS Annunziata has been collecting over many years a noteworthy amount of goods such as real estates, lands, fiefs and castles in addition to money and pieces of jewellery. Nowadays, the treasure is the only piece of evidence of this economic, cultural, social and anthropological patrimony that is eventually given back to the city of Naples. It will be displayed in Castel Nuovo thanks to Graziella Pagano, town councillor of Tourism, who is heavily committed to making the treasure become an integral part of the tourist project of Naples.
The jewels, heart of this exhibition, have great social and historical value. In fact they are the symbol of the story of the "wheel of the foundlings", a wheel in which newborn children were frequently abandoned in the past. They also remind us of the emotional bonds between the mothers and their children, who were left with pieces of jewellery, very useful for the identification of the child in case someone would go back look for them.