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Villa La Santarella
Located at the crossing of via Luigia Sanfelice and via Filippo Palizzi, on the slopes of the Vomero hill, the name of Villa La Santarella comes from one of Scarpetta's famous comedies called "Na santarella" ("A Little Saint").
In the main entrance hall there is a stucco bas-relief depicting one of the key scenes of the play — it was in fact the proceeds the playwright earned from this work that made it possible to build the house.
The term "La Santarella", in the Petraio district, has become popularly used to refer to the whole area, which includes the winding route of via Sanfelice-Palizzi-Toma and the clusters of charming Liberty-style buildings standing along them. The building, a typical example of the Neapolitan Liberty movement, was built as a sort of small neo-Renaissance castle for the famous playwright Eduardo Scarpetta towards the end of the 19th century, following the author's own precise instructions.
Square in shape, originally two storeys and later extended to three, the villa is accentuated at its corners by four projecting, battlemented turrets, so much so that Scarpetta himself said it looked like "un comò sottosopra" ("an upside-down chest of drawers"). On the façade, the playwright had the phrase "Qui rido io" ("Here I am the one who laughs") inscribed, meaning to point out that if audiences laughed at his witty lines in the theatre, in this place of delights it was he who most enjoyed his own art.
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Places in Naples
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