the epoch of clean soles

In Palazzo San Giacomo you can still find some shoe scrapers, evidence of past times but still able to take on the original function they were installed for.

During the XIX century, keeping the Ministry Palazzo of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies clean must have been a difficult task. There were no devices such as cleaning and drying machines or disinfectant detergents to dissolve dirt; moreover, the area in front of the Castle, which today includes the Town Hall square, wasn't entirely paved.
Hence, when it rained, personnel and visitors might easily dirty the floor of those austere offices and elegant halls with their muddy soles.

This issue was solved when the landing of the main flight of steps of the building was equipped with metal laminae fastened to the floor. You just scraped the soles of your shoes on the top of the lamina and the mud would be scraped off.

Some of those shoe scrapers are still there, overlooked and abandoned but surviving the passing of time, like a melancholy memory of their praiseworthy service, proudly showing their edge worn out by too many shoes having scraped the mud off their soles.