The long death of Villa d'Elboeuf (1711-2011)

There are some moments in life when you decide that when it’s enough, it’s enough, and for me that moment was last August 10, 2011.

It was one of those clear days that only the Naples’ sky can donate to his happy few: soft wind, scorching light, clear air. In a nutshell, a bandit day for any photographer. As a Wikipedia passionate, and blessed by the fact that this year I spend my holidays at home, I left for a photo trip around the many historical beauties of my land.

There is a place in Portici, the small town on the Vesuvius’ feet where I was born, which is a small concentrate of history, as glorious as neglected. It is the “Granatello” port, where in the space of some hundred meters the glory of the town is concentrated.

The Granatello port, with the ancient railroad station (right) and Villa d'Elboeuf (left). On the background, the Vesuvius.

The Granatello was the place where Charles of Bourbon, King of the Two Sicilies and successively King of Spain, was forced to refuge on 1737 with his ship, because of a sea storm. Enchanted by the beauty of the surroundings, Charles decided to make of the place his summer residence, and ordered to build a sumptuous Royal Palace on the gentle slopes upwards to Granatello. The Palace was conceived and built between 1737 and 1742 under the supervision of some of the most famous architects of the time, like Giovanni Antonio Medrano, Antonio Canevari, Luigi Vanvitelli and Ferdinando Fuga.

This event is also the root of the flourishing of the area as a royal place. Following the King’s choice, all of the most important noble families of the Kingdom built summer residences along the street bringing to the Royal Palace. The result was a long theory of sumptuous buildings, whose splendor was such that the street was nicknamed the “Miglio d’Oro” (the Golden Mile). On 1971, 110 years after the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Miglio d’Oro’s villas were acknowledged as a cultural heritage by the Republic of Italy (Law July 19, 1971, n° 571), and successively identified as a part of the Human Heritage List of UNESCO.

In addition to the events which led to the formation of the Miglio d’Oro, the Granatello area also has deep roots in history because of another landmark event. On October 3, 1839, Ferdinando II of the Two Sicilies, grand-nephew of Charles of Bourbon, inaugurated the first Italian railroad, the Naples-Portici line, whose terminal station was the Granatello. Longly considerated by historians only a mean of rapidly connecting the two royal sites, the railroad was indeed the first step of an extensive train transportation plan, which led the line to move toward Castellammare di Stabia (famous place where Plinius the Elder died during the Vesuvius 79 a.C. eruption; on the XIX century it was the place were the commercial and military ships were built); Nola (hometown of the famous philosopher Giordano Bruno) and Caserta (where the world-famous Royal Palace was built). Before reaching its final station in Granatello, the ancient railroad flanks Villa d'Elboeuf.

Villa d’Elboeuf is probably the most precious pearl in the Miglio d’Oro string, and for sure it is the most ancient example of nobiliar villa in the area. Built on 1711 for Emanuel Maurice of Lorraine, Duke of Elboeuf, it was conceived by the famous architect Ferdinando Sanfelice. The Duke of Elboeuf was the initiator of the systematic diggings of the ancient Herculaneum town, destroyed by Vesuvius on 79 a.C.. They started after 1710, when a casual perforation made for digging a well, brought some marble ornaments to light. The Villa rapidly became the first place where the archeological findings were stored, thus acquiring a place in the history of archeological sciences. It was successively sold by the Duke of Elboeuf to Charles of Bourbon on 1742, when, after the completion of the Royal Palace, he made of the Villa his pied-a-terre on the sea. The two buildings thus became the poles of attraction for all the visitors of the Herculaneum diggings, since, in addition to the Duke of Elboeuf’s collection, Charles of Bourbon started to transfer in the Royal Palace copious amounts of archeological findings.

With such a glorious past, rooted in 300 years of history, Villa d’Elboeuf should have to be regarded as a precious treasure and protected by the injury of time.

Sadly, this is not the case.

The internal street of the Villa, invaded by wild vegetation

When I visited it on August, 10, the door of access to the ancient garden was open and unguarded. Once inside, a thick stratum of invasive vegetation flanked the two sides of the cobblestone-covered internal street, where once Charles of Bourbon used to step out of his coach. The glorious twin honor stairs, built of lava stone, which from the garden bring to the upper floor, are standing just because of their strength, but the marble railings on which the Two Sicilies’ nobility posed their hands for helping the rise, are long gone.
The façade of the villa is showing few of the original shutters, while all the other windows are open to any winds like breathless mouths asking for help.

One of the monumental stairs bringing to the Villa's upper floors

Over the refined decorations designed by Ferdinando Fuga for making the monumental façade lighter, the sprays of the new Vandals have mindlessly designed their stupid tags, graphic expression of idiot minds.

The vandalized decorations of the external façade

Once entered, the situation is even worse.

One of the decorated doors, vandalized

The Capodimonte’s majolica pavement emerges in its splendor only in brief tracts, where the thickness of dirt barely leaves a space. The internal honor’s stairs are partially collapsed, and the artistic railings are gone. Where once the Two Sicilies’ gentlemen courted their ladies, by kindly kissing their hands in a long-gone cavalry gesture, there is a ruin difficult to imagine. The long corridors are full of dirt, broken bricks, collapsed boards. In some places, the wooden ceiling shows the evident signs of a fire. For I have two small children, I had not the courage to test the resistance of the honor’s stairs, but I finally found the service ones, which brought me on the second floor, out of five in total. Nothing changed, more ruin, more squalor, open windows over the sea, which during the winter have to bring inside cold wind and water.

The honour's stair

I stepped back on the first floor, trying to imagine how this old jewel should have to be in its glory days. I found the answer looking down on the pavement, where a single broken majolica stayed on top of a rubbish pile. It was marvelous, an unimaginable design of blue on blue, that kind of thing that only artisans born and lived under a glorious blue sky can imagine and paint. I thought of the glory this little piece of history testified, the Mozart’s and Paisiello’s melodies rolling over its surface, while gentle steps described the delicate designs of long-gone dances. Heart sinking, tears in my eyes, for a moment I considered to take it away, to salvage it from the mindlessness of centuries and men. But I could not, I would only have been another Vandal, another thief, even if full of good intentions.

A view of the first floor

Instead, I made photos, tens of them, in order to make to see everybody which doesn’t want to see. I wrote this, trying to make into these lines all the love and rage and sorrow I feel. Leaving alone Villa d’Elboeuf is like abandoning an old lady in the middle of a street. It is something that no decent person, whose parents provided with a heart and an education, would ever do. I don’t want to. I’ll write and scream until this is amended.

General view from the sea

In this Italy which is carelessly celebrating its 150 years, there is a 300 years noblewoman which is gently and faintly asking for help.

Happy birthday, Villa d’Elboeuf, I love you.

BREAKING NEWS: Just seconds after having shared this post of facebook, a friend sent me a news from an important local newspaper, telling that yesterday a new fire plagued Villa d'Elboeuf. The link to the article (in Italian) is: http://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/napoli/notizie/cronaca/2011/19-agosto-2011/fiamme-villa-d-elboeuf-torna-allarme-le-dimore-vesuviane-miglio-d-oro-1901322390358.shtml#boxcommenta

IF YOU WANT TO HELP: Villa d’Elboeuf's property is fractioned among different owners. The most important of them is a company which has been declared insolvent. As a consequence, the Villa should have to be sold in order to repay the debts. A first tender (8 millions of euro have been asked to acquire the building) has gone deserted. On 2008, 2009, 2010, three fires have consummated parts of the wooden structures, thus undermining the Villa’s stability. Local authorities think that there is a criminal design aimed to compromise the Villa and then use that valuable space for property speculation. If you want to show you care for Villa d’Elboeuf and want to help its recovery, please send a mail to the Portici’s Mayor Vincenzo Cuomo (sindaco@comune.portici.na.it) with the object “Salvate Villa d’Elboeuf (Save Villa d’Elboeuf)”.