2-995-809 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Gates of the King's Palace, Naples, 1860. 'This Royal palace was begun in 1600, by the command of Philip III., in the viceroyalty of the Count de Lemos, from the designs of Domenico Fontana, and is considered the masterpiece of that architect. The front, five hundred and twenty feet long, presents the Doric, Ionic, and Composite orders in the pilasters of its three stories; the Doric of the ground story, in Fontana's design, formed an open portico, with three entrances flanked by columns of granite from the Isola del Giglio. Many of the arches have been walled up to give solidity to the building. The first and second floors have each twenty-one windows. The principal court has a double row of porticos. The palace was partly destroyed by fire in 1837, and has been since repaired and enlarged especially towards the Piazza di San Carlo, where a garden has been planted, and two colossal bronze horses, presented to his Majesty by the late Emperor of Russia, in recollection of his reception in Italy in 1844. These statues are by Russian artists, and cast in St. Petersburg'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.