Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In the decades that followed Gesualdo's own death, the Prince of Venosa became a se-
mimythical figure, his name associated with ever more lurid tales of bloody revenge.
Some say that 'the Angel's' death wasn't enough for the betrayed husband, who subse-
quently murdered his own infant son for fear that he belonged to Carafa. According to
other accounts, Gesualdo's victims included his father-in-law, who had come seeking his
own revenge.
And then there is the beautiful Maria d'Avalos herself, whose scantily dressed ghost is
said to still haunt Piazza San Domenico Maggiore when the moon is full, desperately
searching for her slaughtered sweetheart.
The Palazzo dei Di Sangro itself was built for the noble Di Sangro family, whose most
famous member, Raimondo di Sangro (1710-71), remains one of Naples' most rumour-
ridden characters. Inventor, scientist, soldier and alchemist, the Prince of Sansevero came
up with some nifty inventions, among them a waterproof cape for Charles III of Bourbon
and a mechanical land-and-water carriage 'drawn' by life-size cork horses. He also intro-
duced freemasonry into the Kingdom of Naples, resulting in a temporary excommunica-
tion from the Catholic Church.
Yet even a papal rethink couldn't quell the
salacious stories surrounding Raimondo, which
included castrating promising young sopranos
and knocking off seven cardinals to make fur-
niture with their skin and bones. Even fellow
Freemason Count Alessandro Cagliostro - who
went on trail before the Inquisition court in
Rome in 1790 - confessed that everything he
knew about alchemy and the dark arts he
learned from di Sangro. According to Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce (1866-1952),
who wrote about di Sangro in his book
Storie e leggende napoletane
(Neapolitan Stories
and Legends), the alchemist held a Faustian fascination for the
centro storico's
masses. To
them, his supposed knack for magic saw him master everything from replicating the mir-
acle of San Gennaro's blood to reducing marble to dust with a simple touch.
For centuries rumours surrounded the two perfect anatomical models in the crypt of the
di Sangro funerary chapel, the Cappella Sansevero. One popular legend suggested the
bodies were those of his defunct domestics. Even taller was the tale that the servants were
far from dead when the Prince got started on the embalming. Cruel fiction, undoubtedly,
but even today the models' realistic detail leaves many questions unanswered.
Across from the Solfatara Crater - reputed site
of San Gennaro's beheading in 305 - is the
Santuario di San Gennaro alla Solfatara, home
to the marble slab used for his murder. Legend
has it that when the saint's blood liquefies,
dark blood stains reappear on the slab.
