Map of the Great State Archive of Naples

However it does not belong to this exhibition to retrace the vicissitudes of the precious documentary material of the Neapolitan Kingdom, it is appropriate remembering, at the time of its concentration in the historic building of the Benedictine abbey, how, since the French era, the need to try to reunite as much as possible the documentary material scattered in various locations, from the Angevin to the Aragonese ones in Castelnuovo, to the viceroy of Castel Capuano, up to the current location.

All the interventions are specifically noted in the decrees 22 December 1808, 11 March 1810, 3 December 1811, 16 July 1812, 22 October 1812, 26 June 1817, 12 November 1818 and in the report of 25 April 1835 for delivery to the Ministry of the Interior of the building of S. Severino «and if it takes possession as soon as the place will be evacuated by the Pilotini. The vast monastery that had been for more than four centuries indicated as one of the most monumental existing buildings in the city, considered as the most suitable place to welcome the Great Archive of the Kingdom, whose documentation went from the time of the distant duchy (VIII century) to the sec. XIX, it presented itself with the ancient intact structure of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but due to the wear and tear of the time, the planimetry dispersed in a capacity of locals absolutely unsuitable to accommodate the large amount of writings that had to be preserved there.

To this must be added that the looting, extraneous installations, the hardships and cataclysms suffered on the foreshortening of the century. XVIII had left very heavy traces on the admirable frescoes, on the majestic vaults, on the gardens, on the immense terraces from which the gaze embraced the incomparable panorama of the Gulf and the Neapolitan hills.Hence the need to undertake with a concrete project the restoration of the immense building and to take care of its adaptation to the new use.

The Neapolitan architect Ercole Lauria was the designer and executor of the renovation of the entire environmental complex, in the scrupulous restoration of what the monastery was grandiose and artistic, who was able to ensure that in 1845, on the occasion of the VII Congress of Scientists which was held in Naples, the Archive of the Kingdom appeared, at least partially, in its headquarters in S. Severino.

The implementation of the project was neither simple nor easy, because to the claims of the monks who wanted to recover the Atrium of the Plane tree, the difficulties created by the other tenants and by the military offices still in the convent were added. Lauria's project was to include not only the architectural part of the building, but also the creation of models of shelves and furniture to be installed in the premises. The restoration was necessarily carried out in successive stages from 1835 to 1848, from 1849 to 1853, then occasionally from 1855 to 1863.

The works were set by Lauria on the basis of the criterion explicitly repeated by him in 1854, to "go cautious in demolition of the old walls or in order not to remove that stability in the factories which, as a matter of age, are leaning on the walls that are next to it, aiming therefore to link the ancient part in the restoration with chains, trusting in the exceptional thickness of the walls and vaults, proceeding with the demolition of the dangerous secondary walls, using the reductions of small rooms to large halls in imitation of the ancient survivors, the reconstruction of the paved and deteriorated roofs, the restoration of the ancient terracotta and majolica floors, the defense of all external agents and the simultaneous installation of the wooden wall furnishings to hold the writings.

On vico San Severino, the new doorway opened under the wide arch of piperno which from the vestibule leads into the first atrium of the well, the restoration of various rooms on the ground floor was planned and the perspective of the floors above remained unchanged.

Access to the second atrium was closed by a large iron gate and the atrium, adapted as a garden, had restored all the fifteenth-century pillars of piperno, and particularly the corner pillar of the portico.

The restoration and adaptation of the rooms facing this atrium was hampered and prolonged by the presence of the Corps of Cannoneers and by the sailors and the College of the Guardiamarina.

Because on the right side of the atrium there were large basements with a large staircase of piperno of the ancient fifteenth-century structure, an Academic Theater had been built there in 1836, then given for rent to private individuals.

Particular

In 1838, continuing the slow work to clear the building and its restoration, there were practices between the Ministry of the Interior and Superintendent Spinelli to definitively remove the Theater and with it the still existing homes of the Navy employees.

On May 31, 1838 a plea was addressed to the Superintendent because he delayed the dismantling of the Theater. In return, in July 1838 the Corps of Gunners and Sailors definitively cleared the occupied premises. The Theater, instead, was still functional in 1842, because permission was left to hold performances until the end of the carnival and no later, since work had already been set on the room above the damaged theater itself, and on the other premises, headquarters of the Schools of the College of Marina.

Once the Theater has been eliminated, Lauria can face the most demanding part of the works between the second, third and fourth atrium between 1843 and 1844, after taking care of the reconstruction of the pavements, to satisfy the monks, to order the first shelves.
The most important changes concerned the closure of the passage between the second atrium and the vestibule of the Refectory, where the piperno staircase was restored by reworking all the steps, replacing the broken ones with new ones and providing the window openings with railings.
In the first vestibule, restored the barrel vault, four stucco-covered pedestals were placed, for four plaster statues, brought from the Bourbon Museum and representing Cicero, Aeschine, Demosthenes, Homer ".