Welcome to the site Napoliforme

The work of Baroque architect Cosimo Fanzago (1642) is named after Anna Carafa di Stigliano, wife of the viceroy Filippo Gúzman de las Torres. The tufa cliff overlooking the sea was worked on to create a three-storey princely residence, but the palace remained unfinished when the viceroy returned to Spain in 1644. Remodelled over time, it underwent numerous changes, such as the addition of the upper courtyard connecting it to the Posillipo road. Because of its suggestive location overlooking the sea, and probably because of the effect of apparent abandonment, it is the perfect setting for numerous legends, a mute witness to perverse loves and heinous deaths. One story tells of betrayal and revenge: during one of Anna Carafa's sumptuous parties, a drama is played out on the stage of the theatre set up in the hall, starring the young Mercedes de las Torres, niece of the lady of the house, and the handsome Prince Gaetano di Casapesenna, Donna Anna's lover. The passionate acting leaves no doubt as to the bond between the two young people and Anna, from the height of her rank, orders her niece to leave the prince, but the love intrigue continues and soon jealousy becomes vengeful fury. Mercedes disappears, it is said, locked up in a convent, and there is no more news of her; shortly afterwards the prince is transferred to a battlefield, destined for certain death. And Anna Carafa ends her life in solitude, consumed by madness for her lover's betrayal.