Filangeri

On the 1st October 1943 the sky above the town of San Paolo Bel Sito was still bearing the signs of a crime which indelibly marked the history of Naples.

At the outbreak of World War II the ministry for Public Education, charged to care for the Historical and Artistic Heritage of Italy, programmed to secure its own worldly admired heritage.

In Naples, the director of the State Archives, Riccardo Filangieri was instructed to classify documents and works of art on a degree scale running from A (very important) to D: then had to decide what was more or less worthy of being saved among the immense heritage of a whole nation, as in the State Archives were kept documents relating to the Neapolitan court of Frederick II, who during the twelfth century formed in his court the core of the Italian culture.

All that had been classified as A, B, C, was cataloged, stored in cases and sent to different places considered safe from military incursions. Partly ended at Montecassino, partly in the Abbey of the Cava (Abbazia della Santa Trinità in Cava de 'Tirreni) and the greater part was brought in the Montesano Villa, near Nola. Filangieri decided to bring to Nola also the collection which belonged to his family at least from a century. Some logistical problems delayed the translation of this: some days before the Armistice, in fact, there were few transport devices provided to allow a safe rearrangement of works of art in stores. Any transport device should have been used for hostile purposes. Everything else was considered less important.

But Riccardo Filangieri was certainly a well known and admired personage by the local community. The city of Naples  had to be thankful with the Filangieri's Family, since the first municipal museum of Naples was grounded by them.

Museum Filangieri  was offered to the citizens: the first part of the collection was assembled by the philosopher Gaetano Filangieri, (1752-1788). Unfortunately it is not easy to come back to the core of the collection since most of the documentation was destroyed right in 1943.

The first catalog of the Filangieri collection, with the dual purpose of guiding and to be an inventory, was edited by the homonymous nephew Gaetano, prince of Satriano in 1888, at the opening to the public of palace Como (or Cuomo.) Filangieri offered his full contribution to the reconstruction and enrichment of that building to create the very first museum for Naples.

In 1880, as new regulatory plan (city-planning), the Palace was to be demolished. That decision shook with indignation the citizenship, because of their admiration for the mid-sixteenth-century Renaissance-style palace  so recognizable and a bit 'naive compared to the more usual palazzi in Neapolitan Baroque style. To prevent a so to say “popular revolution” the palace was dismantled, shifted by twenty meters and reassembled on the perimeter established by the new plan in Via Duomo.

Museum Filangieri was born to be a "Museum of the City" exposing the works collected in that time thanks to the experience as connoisseur of the prince over the last two decades. The catalog reflects perfectly the idea of the museum at the time, as a teaching tool that then brought progress through the city.

In 1943, at Villa Montesano, also known as Casanova, were filed more than 30,000 books and 50,000 scrolls, parchment registers 378 of the Chancery Angevin, Aragonese records of the Chancery, scrolls of Frederick II, and other valuable documents, including the collection of coats of arms of the Town Southern Italy, made between 1818 and 1861 by the Bourbons; there was also carried a large part of the collection of paintings and manuscripts belonging to the Museo Filangieri.

In those days of September, the countryside around Naples was infested with Germans, divided into teams of three soldiers each, well armed with pistols and machine guns which were often raiding the homes of peasants.

On September 22nd one of these teams installed in the courtyard of the villa, without showing any intention of wanting to explore the interior.

But the day after, with the pretext of having to return a calf that got lost from a group of cows belonging to farmers of Villa Montesano, German soldiers entered the house and discovered the hidden treasure.

The following day, in front of the watchful eyes of the inspector appointed by Filangieri to oversee the safety of the treasure, a German officer wanted to have a look to the contents, meanwhile his entourage, composed of six military inspected the cellar where they found nothing but sausages (!) and the prove of the absence of weapons or members of the Resistance.

It was then that Filangieri was informed of this unpleasant visit. In response to this the Superintendent wrote a heartfelt letter to the German commander explaining the cultural importance of that material, fundamental both for Italy and for Europe. Unfortunately the letter was intercepted on the morning of September 30th. Some say that there was an officer among those who read the letter that would have saved the treasure, but the commander firmly answered: "Commando know everything. Order: BURNING "

That implies we are told by Filangieri himself: “trovandomi nella mia Villa di Livardi, poco lungi da quel luogo, venni subito informato dell'accaduto dall'economo, tenente colonnello Giuseppe Basile, residente a Montesano…erano le 9,45, quando alcuni militari tedeschi iniziarono l'opera di distruzione…ponevano ai quattro angoli ed al centro di ciascuna sala, carta, paglia, e polvere pirica, appiccandovi il fuoco, in modo che dopo alcuni minuti la Villa divenne un rogo" ["finding myself in villa Livardi, not far from that place, I was immediately informed of what was going on by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Basile, a citizen of Montesano ... It was 9.45 when some German soldiers began the destruction ... posing in the four corners and center of each room, paper, straw, and gunpowder, set on fire, so that after several minutes the Villa became a funeral pyre. "]

It was possible to save only eleven of the 866 cases. And again the painful memory of Filangieri continues: "…dalle indagini fatte mi risulta che il Comando tedesco che stava a Nola, qualche giorno dopo si era trasferito. Nulla si è appreso a riguardo dei responsabili di quel misfatto. Da alcuni ho appreso che qualche cartello affisso a Nola, recava la firma di Kellerman, altri di un Capitano Sommerfield" ["... I am aware that investigations made by the German High Command who was in Nola, a few days later had been transferred. Nothing knows who was responsible for this crime. I knew that some notices posted at Nola, were signed by Kellerman, others by Captain Sommerfield.”] These reports were drawn from the Archives of State / Allied Commission and Commission for Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives. Poligrafico Institute Final Report on Archives in Rome in 1946.

Regarding the works of art only 36 paintings were transported back to Naples. Among the most serious losses there are a Portrait of a Young Florentine, attributed to a young Botticelli and a  Madonna and Child by Bernardino Luini.

The crime of Villa Montesano profoundly affected the world of Italian culture. Just see how Benedetto Croce recalls the fire in his diary on 14th of October: “Ma sono caduto in una tristezza mortale per l’orrenda notizia che i tedeschi hanno incendiato, inondato di benzina, il castello di San Paolo Bel Sito, dove l’Archivio di Stato di Napoli, per precauzione contro i bombardamenti, aveva trasportato tutta la parte antica e preziosa dei suoi depositi [...]; tutte carte sulle quali ho lavorato anch’io e dalle quali ho tratto alcuni miei libri; tutti i documenti della Storia del Regno di Napoli. Sono con l’animo di chi ha visto morire la persona piú cara, ma con la mente di chi misura l’immensitá della perdita per la nostra tradizione e per la scienza storica. E non c’é rimedio e non c’é vendetta che possa soddisfare; e intanto siamo appena ai principi della distruzione sistematica che questa gente dal cuore barbarico e dal cervello pedantesco si é proposto di eseguire dell’Italia, non solo nella sua potenza industriale ed economica ma nel suo valore ideale di maestra e di storia di arte.” ["But I fell into a mortal sadness for the terrible news that the Germans burned, flooded with petrol, the castle of San Paolo Bel Sito, where l 'State Archives of Naples, as a precaution against air raids, had carried the whole of the ancient and precious of its deposits [...]; all papers on which I worked, too, and from which I have drawn some of my books, all Documents of the History of the Kingdom of Naples. I'm with the soul of the person who has seen the most important loss, but with the mind of those who measure the immensity of the loss for our tradition and historical science. And there is no cure and no revenge that we can have, and meanwhile we are just the principles of the systematic destruction of these people from the heart and brain pedantic barbarism has set out to perform in Italy, not only in its industrial power and economic value but in its ideal of a teacher and history of art. "]

To today the museum is closed to the public. Visiting after booking.

The artistic and historical interest of the building of the collection seems to have attracted the attention of both the public and the Italian Government. As per an article of the FAI, Minister Bondi assured that the Museum will reopen soon.