NAPLES. 
fal, are five or fix ftories in height, and flat at the top ; on 
which are placed numbers of flower-vafes, or fruit-trees, 
in boxes of earth, producing a very gay and agreeable ef¬ 
fect. The fortrefs of St. Elmo is built on a mountain of 
the fame name, and the garrifon ftationed in it has the en¬ 
tire command of the town. A little lower on the fame 
mountain is a convent of Carthufians, upon which a large 
fum has been expended in order to render the buildings 
and gardens equal in point of beauty to the fituation. 
The walls of Naples form a circuit of nine Italian miles; 
but, including the fuburbs, the entire circumference can¬ 
not be lefs than eighteen or twenty Italian miles. It is 
embellifhed by a confiderable number of fountains, fur- 
nifhing indifferent water; and water is alfo conveyed to 
the city, from the foot of Mount Vefuvius, by a very 
grand aquedu£l, 
For the defence of the city, and at the fame time to 
keep it in fubje< 5 tion, are five c'allles ; but, according to the 
old method, confifting only of very ftrong walls. The 
Caftelio Nuovo has a communication by a covered way 
with the king's palace, and on one fide is contiguous to 
the fea. Its fubterraneous works and mines are admira¬ 
ble. At its entrance Hands a triumphal arch, of very 
curious fculpture. The arlenal is faid to contain com¬ 
plete fets of arms for 50,000 men. The Caftelio del 
Uovo, l'o called from its oval figure, is of fiome ftrength, 
and Hands on a rock in the fea. St. Elmo, or St. Eramo, 
is fituated on a mountain, towards the weft, and refembles 
a ftar of fix rays, which are hewn out of the rock ; its fub- 
terraneous works are wide, lofty, and bomb-proof. It 
has eight refervoirs for water. The harbour is fpacious, 
and for its greater fecurity has a canal, and a mole near 
500 paces in length ; but is by far lefs commodious and 
lecure than that of Gaeta, efpeciaily in a hard gale at 
fouth-weft. 
The ftreets are in general well-paved, and of a conve¬ 
nient width ; but the great number of balconies with 
latticed windows, and of flails whereon eatables are ex- 
pofed to fide, make them appear to lefs advantage ; for 
every one fixes his flail in the ftreet in the direction that 
bell pleafes his fancy, without the lead attention to the 
convenience of paflengers ; and any one may fee, with 
half an eye, that no fuch regulation as “Mr. Taylor’s 
ftreet-abt” has ever been thought of here. Yet the ftreets 
are cleaner than the porticos, the ftair-cafes, and anti¬ 
chambers, of the palaces ; becaufe the filth flows into the 
fea by vaft fubterraneous fewers whenever rain falls. 
Many ftreets are inhabited byartifans of the fame trade; thus 
the {hoe-makers, cabinet-makers, fmiths, coach-makers, 
See. have each their ftreets allotted to them. The Strada 
di Toledo is appropriated to grand proceffions, and to 
malks at the time of Carnival ; at which period, the tra¬ 
veller will be really convinced of the excefs of jovial de¬ 
lirium that fills the Neapolitan ; who, forgetting all his 
madonnas and afts of piety which occupied him through 
the year, then conduits himfelf like an aStual madman. 
The ftreets, till a very few years ago, had neither watch¬ 
men nor lamps ; but of late years darknefs was dilpelled 
in many ftreets, by the piety of father Rocco, a Dominican, 
who perfuaded the people to fubferibe oil for lamps, to 
burn before images; he fixed them up in the moft con¬ 
venient places, and thus turned their devotion to public 
account. But, while this city was under the dominion of 
the French, namely, on the 16th of December, 1806, the 
ftreets were regularly lighted with lamps : thefe lamps are 
refleifors, and hungacrofs the middle of the ftreets, high 
enough for the carriages to run under them, as at Paris. 
The crowds of people to witnefs this lpedtacle were im- 
inenfe. 
There are five piazzas, or fquares, appropriated to the 
nobility: they are called Capuana, Nido, Montagna, 
Porto, and Porto Nova. The commonalty have alfo their 
peculiar piazza. Each of thefe fix piazzas choofes its de¬ 
puties, who fuperintend the police of the city, and hold 
a court for the examination of fuch public concerns as 
fall under their cognizance, 
Vol. XVI. No. 1136. 
509 
Of all the palaces, that of the king is not only the mod: 
auguft, but alfo of the neweft archite&ure. Near the pa¬ 
lace was the theatre of St. Charles, one of the largeft and 
moft fplendid in Europe. It was entirely deftroyed by fire 
on the 17th of February, 1816; and it was wfith great 
difficulty that the king’s palace was faved. 
Naples is the fee of an archbilhop, whofe cathedral, 
called II Duomo, is a fine Gothic building. The greateft 
curiofity in it is the magnificent chapel, called II Teforo, 
where Januarius’s head and fome of his blood are kept. 
(See Januarius, vol. x.) The unproductive wealth, 
which is lodged in the churches and convents of this 
city, amounts to a very large fum ; and, though the 
churches and convents of Rome furpafs thole of Naples 
in point of architecture, yet the latter are fuperior to the 
former in riches, in the value of their jewels, and in the 
quantity of lilver and golden crucifixes, veffels, and im¬ 
plements of various kinds. The monafteries and con¬ 
vents of both fexes are computed at 149 ; befides which, 
here are 34 houfes for poor boys, girls, and women, xr 
hofpitals, 4 capital churches, 32 parifh-churches, 70 other 
chapels and churches, and upwards of 130 oratories or 
chapels of religious fraternities. Indeed, the abundance 
of charitable foundations, well endowed and well admi- 
niftered, is the moft linking feature in the portrait of this 
city. Thefe exill among the moft profligate people in 
Europe, in a variety and extent almoll wholly unknown 
elfewhere. They have founded inllitutions, the idea of 
which never entered into the lefs-refined conceptions of 
more pure and fober-minded communities. There are 
above lixty public charities in the city, of which about 
thirty are receptacles for orphans, foundlings, magdalens. 
Sec. and five banks for relieving the induftrious poor by 
fmall loans on pledges, at low intereft, or without any: 
one of thefe banks,called the Mount ofPiety, has a revenue 
of jo,000 ducats. The nunnery for ladies of quality is 
faid to be the largeft in the world, containing no lefs than 
350 nuns, befides fervants. The two principal hofpitals 
contain two thouland and eighteen hundred patients, 
refpeftively. Thefe have villas annexed to them in the 
country for thofc patients whofe difeafes, arifing from 
confinement in a crow'ded town, require free air and exer- 
cife; and it feems to be the general practice, when a pa¬ 
tient is difeharged, to give him as much money as he 
would have earned during the period of his confinement, 
had he been in health. In the coiifervatorii, or charity- 
fchools, an immenfe number of poor children are main¬ 
tained, educated, and trained to handicrafts of various 
kinds. There are fome fchools devoted to mufic alone $ 
and, among the fruits of thefe, the Neapolitans are juftly 
proud to reckon Paefielli, Caffarelii, and Pergolefe. Of the 
numerous confraternities, we may mention the one whofe 
province is to provide for the comfort of capita! convifts, 
and take care of their families; the Congregation of St. 
Ivone, compofed of lawyers, who manage the fuits of 
poor clients, and defray all their expenfes ; and that of 
the nobles for the relief of the ba/hful poor ; a Angular in- 
ftitution, and one of the refinements of charity above al¬ 
luded to. “ The objeft of this aflociation, (lays Mr. 
Eullace,) is to difeover and relieve fuch induftrious per- 
fons as are reduced to poverty by misfortune, and have 
too much fpirit, or too much modefty, to folicit public 
afliilance. The members of this aflociation, it is faid, 
difcharge its benevolent duties with a zeal, a fagacity, and, 
what is Hill more neceflary for the accomplilhment of 
their objecl, with a delicacy and kindnefs, truly admira¬ 
ble.” The xvant of chaftity ha$ generally been confidered 
as a prevailing vice of the Neapolitans. Yet is it not for 
want of hofpitals direfted to this objefl. There are, as 
the fame author obferves, “ more retreats opened to re¬ 
pentant females, and more means employed to fecure the 
innocence of girls expofed to the dangers of fedu&ion, 
than are to be found in London, Paris, Vienna, and Pe- 
terlburgh, united.” He gives, as an inftance, one confer- 
vatorio, where four hundred are educated, and, wdien mar¬ 
riageable, portioned out. 
* F 
The 
