The Historical Apothecary of Hospital for Incurables in Naples (Farmacia Storica dell’Ospedale degli Incurabili di Napoli) was built in the eighteenth century thanks to the legacy of Antonio Maggioccia, director of the old pharmacy. It was designed by the famous architect Bartolomeo Vecchione, and consists of a big hall and a less wider laboratory (in which medicines and drugs were prepared).Visitors can admire its beautiful staircases made of trachytic rock, its elegant inlaid wooden furniture and its several Murano's glass cruet and majolica vases decorated with bucolic pattern.
One of the principal reasons to visit the Historical Apothecary is to esteem the marvelous portrait of the Neapolitan painter Pietro Bardellino, which represents a scene taken from the second book of Homer's Iliad: the renowned medic Macaone is curing king Menelaus' wound.
Unluckily, the building has undergone several disasters during centuries, so it can be visited only with a special permission of the Hospital administration.
- Photos by Piergiorgio Turco (November 2011)
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Bibliography
- G.Rispoli,A.Valerio, L’ospedale del reame. Gli Incurabili di Napoli, Il Torchio della Regina, Napoli 2010