DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0273
NEAPOLITAN LIFE.
219
before inhabited unhealthy and undesirable quarters. These
are seen in the Rione Vasto at Capuano; and in the Rione
Arenaccia Orientate one is amazed at the improvement.
In the Rione Vomero Arenella, to which cable railways
now extend, the population has increased surprisingly.
One happy improvement is in the trams and cable roads
which replace to a great extent the dirty vehicles of other
days, dragged by horses which excited one’s pity, unmer-
cifully overloaded and driven as they were.
When other kindred improvements are made,— when wide
streets are cut through the city from east to west, when
the scheme for arterial drainage is carried out and the
sewage conducted twelve miles away, —- and many other con-
templated betterments perfected, Naples will easily be the
most beautiful city in the world ; it will be the Paradise
the great German poet found it, and we believe that the
“ devils ” by which it was inhabited in his day will have
disappeared.
The most extensive and splendid edifice which has been
erected in Naples within the last decade is the Galleria
Umberto I. Di Mauro, a Roman architect, made the plan,
which is magnificently carried out in every detail. It is
said to have cost more than four million dollars, a large
sum having been contributed by the municipality. Its
exterior is not so fine as it would have been had not two
churches and several private houses been incorporated in
it. But the interior is most effective ; the centre octagon,
beneath a glass dome rising nearly two hundred feet above
it, is very imposing. The decorations in stucco and gilding
are fine, especially when seen by the electric light, and the
angels in copper, below the dome, are artistic and pleasing,
as well as the statues and reliefs about the main entrance
in the Strada S. Carlo.
At No. 8, in the gallery, a presepe is seen that is said
to have belonged to King Charles III. The antiquarian
219
before inhabited unhealthy and undesirable quarters. These
are seen in the Rione Vasto at Capuano; and in the Rione
Arenaccia Orientate one is amazed at the improvement.
In the Rione Vomero Arenella, to which cable railways
now extend, the population has increased surprisingly.
One happy improvement is in the trams and cable roads
which replace to a great extent the dirty vehicles of other
days, dragged by horses which excited one’s pity, unmer-
cifully overloaded and driven as they were.
When other kindred improvements are made,— when wide
streets are cut through the city from east to west, when
the scheme for arterial drainage is carried out and the
sewage conducted twelve miles away, —- and many other con-
templated betterments perfected, Naples will easily be the
most beautiful city in the world ; it will be the Paradise
the great German poet found it, and we believe that the
“ devils ” by which it was inhabited in his day will have
disappeared.
The most extensive and splendid edifice which has been
erected in Naples within the last decade is the Galleria
Umberto I. Di Mauro, a Roman architect, made the plan,
which is magnificently carried out in every detail. It is
said to have cost more than four million dollars, a large
sum having been contributed by the municipality. Its
exterior is not so fine as it would have been had not two
churches and several private houses been incorporated in
it. But the interior is most effective ; the centre octagon,
beneath a glass dome rising nearly two hundred feet above
it, is very imposing. The decorations in stucco and gilding
are fine, especially when seen by the electric light, and the
angels in copper, below the dome, are artistic and pleasing,
as well as the statues and reliefs about the main entrance
in the Strada S. Carlo.
At No. 8, in the gallery, a presepe is seen that is said
to have belonged to King Charles III. The antiquarian