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The Royal building

old map with the underlined area before the construction of Ministeri di Stato
the area before the construction of Palace dei Ministeri di Stato from: Giovanni Carafa duke of Noja, Map of Naples..., 1775 - Archivio Srorico Municipale, cartographic background.

In 1816 the king Ferdinando I di Borbone-Due Sicilie orderes the construction of a prestigious palace where to assemble the departments and the secretaries of State that till then, were situated in different areas of the city.
 
The identified area for the realization of the building was the area between via San Giacomo, il vico della Concezione (the present via Paolo Emilio Imbriani), il largo del Castello (the present piazza del Municipio) and via Toledo (now via Roma): a surface of 215.000 neapolitan square spans (about 57.000 square metres).
 
It was necessary to do demolitions and expropriations that concerned houses, the monastery and the church of Concezione (called also of Maria Fior delle Vergini), an ex-hospital and the Bank of San Giacomo; the sixteenth century church of San Giacomo degli Spagnoli wasn't pulled down but it was incorporated in the construction which assumes the name.

 The realisation of the big building, planned by the architects Stefano and Luigi Gasse, Vincenzo Buonocore and Antonio De Simone, lasted from 1819 to 1825 and at the end of the works the main imposing façade in neoclassic style was three-storied, with a mezzanine floor and with three main doors:one was central, "official" and the others were symmetric lateral ( the right one represented the entry of the church of San Giacomo).


 
 
map of the Royal Palace of San Giacomo, cartographic elaboration of 1860
map of the Royal Palace of San Giacomo, cartographic elaboration of 1860

The central entry opened on the main vestibule from which everybody can go in the passage(the gallery is partly covered with glass and iron canopy, one of the first in its kind in Europe) about 160m long that let everybody go through the whole building coming, step after step, to via Toledo.
 
The "real edificio dei ministery di Stato" (royal building of Ministero di Stato) was composed by 7 entries, 6 courtyards ( two of them with fountains), 40 passages, 846 rooms that housed: at the first floor the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, the Ministero degli Affari Esteri e the Ministero degl'Interni; at the second floor Ministeri di Grazia e Giustizia, degli Affari Ecclesiastici e della Polizia; at the third floor il Ministero della Guerra, the Ministero della Marina e il Ministero delle Finanze. 

Ministeri dei Lavori Pubblici, dell'Istruzione, dell'Agricoltura e del Commercio went in through the two main doors which opened on the extended façade of via Toledo.
 
Moreover the office of Borsa, il Banco delle Due Sicilie, la Gran Corte dei Conti and departments of other administrations of finances. Every office and area was furnished exclusively with products of handicrafts of del Regno delle Due Sicilie.

 

From Palace of Department of State to Palace of City

Because of the fall of the Borbon reign the Palace became property of the italian Government that began a long negotiation with the civic Administration to transfer the partial possession. Some municipal offices began to be placed in the Palace and in 1875 The communal Council sanctioned a convention with the Government that proposed to let the city of Naples have in absolute property the parts of palace San Giacomo occupied by the municipality and by the National Guard, and the rooms of the San Giacomo library, with the internal and external passages between the communal offices and the library inclusive.

The agreement wasn't concluded and in July 1879 in Council they discussed for long before coming to the decision to give in the heavy conditions of the Government: exchange of a part of the Palace with the rooms previously occupied by the civic Administration in the ex-monastery of Monteoliveto.
 

Transformation of the insula of San Giacomo

lateral main door on via P.E. Imbriano, plaque with legible inscription: INTENDENZA DI FINANZA
lateral main door on via P.E. Imbriano, plaque with legible inscription: INTENDENZA DI FINANZA

All that remained of property of the Government of the ex- Palace of Borbon Ministeries was acquired by the Banco di Napoli that, in 1930, conducted negotiations with the Demanio governaticp to have the rooms occupied by the Intendenza di Finanza too.

The final agreed price was of 18 millions of lira of the period and the financial offices of the State were trasferred to the new offices built in rione Carità 

With the works for the amplification and the trasformation of the seat of Banco di Napoli in via Toledo the architectural uniqueness of the ex-insula of Palazzo dei Ministeri finished; end ordained by the words of the General Director of the Bank that, in one of his relations read in March 1939, claimed: " in three years the bank will own 386 areas (...), with this acquisition The Bank will be in possession of the whole façade on via Roma and of the maxim part of the wings on via San Giacomo and via Imbriani

 
 
 
 
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