WHERE WE ARE PALAZZO CALABRITTO
Jus Museum is located in the historic Palazzo Calabritto at Via Calabritto 20, with access via staircase B on the main floor.
Palazzo Calabritto is a monumental building in Naples, situated on the street of the same name, at the corner of Piazza dei Martiri (with a second entrance at number 30), in the San Ferdinando district. In the late 17th century, the land where the building now stands was purchased by the Duke of Calabritto from the monks of the nearby Santa Maria a Cappella convent to build his residence.
In 1736, although unfinished, the palace passed to his son Vincenzo, who was forced to sell it for 34,700 ducats to King Carlo, who had fallen in love with the property. However, the king, treating it as a mere whim, did not complete its construction. In 1754, the Tuttavilla family regained ownership, reimbursing the king, and two years later, renovations were entrusted to architect Luigi Vanvitelli. He redesigned the façade and the two entrance portals. On Via Calabritto, the entrance features a rosette and two columns topped with female heads from which decorative garlands hang.
Vanvitelli also revamped the interior, creating a double-arched courtyard and a staircase that, on the Piazza Vittoria side, doesn’t follow the building’s height but leads to a terrace with stunning views of the gulf.
Over the centuries, in addition to the heirs of the Dukes of Calabritto, the palace has hosted illustrious figures such as Gioacchino Murat, brothers Florestano and Guglielmo Pepe, General Paolo Avitabile, jurists Alberto Marghieri and Bruno Gaeta, and diplomat Filippo Caracciolo. Some of the palace’s rooms have also hosted religious ceremonies for the Anglican church and fashion ateliers of various Neapolitan designers. The building was also the headquarters of Napoli Football Club during its golden years in the mid-1980s.
The current rooms of JUS Museum were home to the historic Galleria Morra from 1974 until the late 1990s, where some of the world’s most renowned artists displayed their work.
