Welcome to the site Napoliforme

An architectural masterpiece for the 'rehabilitation' of the city. Designed and built between 1887 and 1890, the year of its inauguration, it replaces the tangle of unhealthy and ill-famed alleys that made the area around the famous and popular San Carlo Theatre dangerous.The interior, with a central four-armed plan, is covered by the luminous structure of the dome (created by the engineer Francesco Paolo Boubée) which experiments with daring solutions in iron and glass, raised on a 36-metre octagon and decorated with winged victories, putti, stars and coats of arms; the floor depicts the signs of the zodiac and in the centre the wind rose. The four buildings that surround the room reflect the eclectic taste of the end of the century, accentuated by decorations with a gold background. The main entrance, with a colonnade open towards the San Carlo, is a triumph of friezes, allegorical statues and winged victories, with the dedication to the sovereign and the date of construction: complex symbolic decoration that exalts the ideals of industry, science and work of bourgeois society. The Salone Margherita opens into the Gallery and is destined to become the most famous café-concert of the Neapolitan belle époque in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the 'temple' of Neapolitan variety shows and songs, frequented by the elegant public, famous people, singers and dancers who have become legendary (such as Maria Campi, who invented the 'move').