2-979-686 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Castle of St. Elmo, Naples, 1857. 'The Castle of St. Elmo, or St. Erasmo, stands on the most lofty point in the neighbourhood of the capital, and commands it completely with its guns. Some uncertainty attaches to the date of its construction, but probably it was built about the middle of the fourteenth century. The mountain on which it stands has been at various times called Monte Falerno, Santo Eramo, and Santo Martino; but St. Eramo has given its name to the castle. The Viceroy of Charles V. much enlarged it, and perhaps all that we now see belongs to the sixteenth century...At present Castel St. Elmo is well provided with munitions of war, and is in the hands of the Swiss, who are thus masters of the city...St. Elmo is used at times as a place of confinement for State prisoners, and of some of its prisons none speak without a shudder'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.