DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0265
NEAPOLITAN LIFE.
215
steps, or in strange corners of the market, and even in
empty fruit-boxes and fish-baskets ; and sad as this appears,
they are to be envied beside many others who live in the
fondaci — called, by Dr. Axel Munthe, “ the most ghastly
human dwellings on the face of the earth.”
These buildings are large, several stories in height, hav-
ing fifteen or more rooms on a floor, and are entirely with-
out windows. They are built in the vilest locations, off
dark alleys, while in the court the cesspool and well are
much too nearly related. In the court, too, are goats,
cows, mules, and other animals in the dirtiest condition;
while odors from rotting tripe and other unmentionable
offal, and from fish that has been condemned by people
who are better off, rise and fill the otherwise stifling rooms
where from one to three hundred — possibly more — human
beings exist. The details of fondaci life are absolutely un-
speakable. Inside balconies furnish the only light and air
to the apartments, and the corner rooms are always dark ;
old rags hang about everywhere, and different families
occupying a single room can only make a pretence of sepa-
rating themselves from each other by suspending their
miserable garments on strings.
Public attention was called to these conditions in 1876,
when Senatore Villari, who went to London for the pur-
pose of seeing the poor, and visited the very worst quarters
where they live, declared that the conditions in London, un-
speakably vile as they were, were still better than in the cor-
responding precincts of Naples. From this time attempts
were made to mend matters, and in 1877 the municipality
gave land to a co-operative society, which built excellent
tenement-houses on spots where fondaci had stood. Other
good houses were built in the following years ; but, alas, the
inhabitants of the old quarters did not get them. They were
filled by a much superior class at such rents as entirely
defeated the supposed objects for which they were erected ;
215
steps, or in strange corners of the market, and even in
empty fruit-boxes and fish-baskets ; and sad as this appears,
they are to be envied beside many others who live in the
fondaci — called, by Dr. Axel Munthe, “ the most ghastly
human dwellings on the face of the earth.”
These buildings are large, several stories in height, hav-
ing fifteen or more rooms on a floor, and are entirely with-
out windows. They are built in the vilest locations, off
dark alleys, while in the court the cesspool and well are
much too nearly related. In the court, too, are goats,
cows, mules, and other animals in the dirtiest condition;
while odors from rotting tripe and other unmentionable
offal, and from fish that has been condemned by people
who are better off, rise and fill the otherwise stifling rooms
where from one to three hundred — possibly more — human
beings exist. The details of fondaci life are absolutely un-
speakable. Inside balconies furnish the only light and air
to the apartments, and the corner rooms are always dark ;
old rags hang about everywhere, and different families
occupying a single room can only make a pretence of sepa-
rating themselves from each other by suspending their
miserable garments on strings.
Public attention was called to these conditions in 1876,
when Senatore Villari, who went to London for the pur-
pose of seeing the poor, and visited the very worst quarters
where they live, declared that the conditions in London, un-
speakably vile as they were, were still better than in the cor-
responding precincts of Naples. From this time attempts
were made to mend matters, and in 1877 the municipality
gave land to a co-operative society, which built excellent
tenement-houses on spots where fondaci had stood. Other
good houses were built in the following years ; but, alas, the
inhabitants of the old quarters did not get them. They were
filled by a much superior class at such rents as entirely
defeated the supposed objects for which they were erected ;