Pasquale Gucciardo

Review of Napoli Federico II

The first public lay university in Europe and ther...

The first public lay university in Europe and therefore in the world.
The building in Corso Umberto I, is in neo-Baroque style and was erected during the Restoration, between 1897 and 1908.
It rises close to the original university complex (which since 1777 had found a place at the Casa del Salvatore, now no more than the Jesuits). However the new building was not isolated from the complex behind it as the architects Pierpaolo Quaglia and Guglielmo Melisurgo, took care to put it in connection with the pre-existing sites behind it through the so-called Scalone della Minerva, which originates in the courtyard of the University Palace and ends in the Jesuit courtyard.