PhD Program in Historical studies
Extra-urban villas
The practice of building extra-urban villas, present in different areas of Italy during the Renaissance (i.e. in Veneto), was implanted slowly and with great difficult in the Kingdom of Naples. It was only from the second half of the seventeenth century that the Neapolitan extra-urban villa began to function as a holiday residence, becoming a real status symbol for the aristocracy of the kingdom. Constructed outside of the oldest core of the urban centre, they were initially built mainly in the district of Posillipo, then moved, at of the end of Spanish rule and especially throughout the eighteenth century, along the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and along the new Calabrian road – which was a major artery linking Naples, Salerno and Reggio Calabria – . It is no coincidence, in fact, that the Ruffo di Bagnara, among the greatest lords of Calabria, were among the first aristocrats who, upon settling in Naples, introduced the fashion of extra-urban dwellings, having an impressive building constructed in Portici.