Galleria Umberto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Galleria Umberto is a public gallery in Naples, southern Italy. It is located directly across from the San Carlo opera house. It was built between 1887-1891, and was the cornerstone in the decades-long rebuilding of Naples--called the risanamento (lit. "making healthy again)--that lasted until World War One. It was designed by Emanuele Rocco, who employed modern architectural elements reminiscent of an earlier galleria in Milan. The Galleria was named for Umberto I, king of Italy at the time of its construction. It was meant to combine businesses, shops, cafes and social life -- public space -- with private space in the apartments on the third floor.
The Galleria is a high and spacious cross-shaped affair surmounted by a glass dome braced by 16 metal ribs. Of the four glass-vaulted wings, one fronts on via Toledo (via Roma), still the main downtown thoroughfare, and another opens onto the San Carlo Theater. It has returned to being an active center of Neapolitan civic life after some years of decay.
