Palazzo Donn'Anna is a historic residence in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It sits prominently at water's edge at the beginning of the Posillipo coast, just west of the Mergellina boat harbor. The building is on the site of the so-called "Rocks of the Siren" and, indeed, was originally called ''La Villa Sirena''.

History

The original building on the site was probably built by one Dragonetto Bonifacio in the early 15th century. It changed hands a number of times and finally was inherited in 1630 by the woman whose name it now bears, Anna Carafa, duchess of Stigliano and wife of Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán, the Spanish

Viceroy of Naples This is a list of viceroys of the Kingdom of Naples. Following the conquest of Naples by Louis XII of France in 1501, Naples was subject to the rule of the foreign rulers, the Kings of France, Aragon and Spain and the Habsburg Archdukes of Austria ...

. She had the building redone by architect Cosimo Fanzago in the 1640s. When her husband returned to Spain alone in 1644, the unfinished palace was left abandoned and neglected The palace was purchased from the heirs of Anna Carafa by Teora Mirelli. The grand but decaying baroque building projecting directly into the sea presented an irresistible subject for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artists. In particular, thanks to the nearby villa of William Hamilton, many were the foreign and British travellers who remained fascinated.Palazzo Donn'Anna, Storia Arte e Natura, curated by Pietro Belli, Allemandi 2017 By the beginning of the 19th century, the structure was still markedly dilapidated. In the early 1900 a French family, Genevois, bought it and started transforming it as it appears to be today. The Western wing was sold in 1928 to the

Colonna di Paliano The House of Colonna, also known as ''Sciarrillo'' or ''Sciarra'', is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Martin V) and many other church and politic ...

family and later to many more families, being fractioned by the Genevois heirs in smaller units. Part of the building is still a ruin, but most of it is currently used as a residence, including the home gallery of art dealer Lia Rumma and for Napoli football player

Dries Mertens Dries Mertens (; born 6 May 1987), nicknamed "Ciro", is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker or winger for Süper Lig club Galatasaray and the Belgium national team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palazzo Donn'anna Houses completed in the 15th century Donn'Anna Donn'Anna 15th-century establishments in Italy