Wonder of Vanvitelli!

Wonder of Vanvitelli!
It is located in via dei Portoghesi, n. 12 (Rione VIII, S. Eustachio). The original structure dates back to a medieval convent built with the church of Sant Agostino. At the end of the fifteenth century the convent together with the church, at the behest of Cardinal Guglielmo d'Estouteville, were enlarged. Renovated in 1746 by the then prior general of the Augustinian order, Agostino Gioia who gave the job to Luigi Vanvitelli. The works were begun the following year by the great architect in collaboration with Antonio Rinaldi, until in 1751 the Vanvitelli, engaged in Russia and Naples in the construction of the Royal Palace of Caserta, took over Carlo Murena. The convent complex was occupied in 1808 by French and Polish troops following the Napoleonic regime in Rome, and returned to the Augustinian friars in 1814. Another desecration of the rooms of the convent and the Angelica Library occurred in 1849 by the Roman republicans; but the Augustinians were able to regain possession of their goods until 1870. In this year the Italian State took over the Convent with the Angelica Library itself. The conventual part became the seat of the Ministry of the Navy and therefore of the State Attorney General; The Academy of Arcadia has been housed in the library since 1941, which has deposited its archive and its volumes there to enrich the library.