The Royal Palace of Capodimonte

The King of Italian Reformism Ferdinand can be considered as the King par excellence that embodied the criteria of Enlightened reformism in Italy and continued and fulfilled what his father had started. Here we cannot analyse this aspect of basic historical importance in depth, and not even in general. This topic was largely discussed by historiography in the last decades. We just list the most important reforms and work implemented and built by his will or upon his suggestion.

Civil construction:

- On 4/IX/1762 he began the construction of the first cemetery in Italy in Naples; then he built another one in Palermo;
- he ordered the construction and the enlargement of the streets of Naples, such as Foria;
- he restored the Royal Palace of Naples;
- in 1779 he erected the Fabbrica de' Granili;
- in 1780 he began the Royal Villa;
- he built three theatres: de' Fiorentini, Fondo and San Ferdinando;
- he constructed: the Botanical Garden in Palermo, the English Garden in Caserta, the Dockyard of Castellammare, the small harbour of Naples, the works of Emissario di Claudio, the Royal Palace of Cardito;
- he built more than 1,000 miles of roads to connect Naples and the provinces;
- he restored bridges, built new ones, drained the swampy coastlands, embanked rivers etc.; in 1790 he reclaimed the Bay of Naples;
- he completed the constructions started by his father (Royal Palaces of Caserta and Portici);
- he started new constructions: Favorita of Palermo, Church of S. Francis of Paola in Naples, etc.

Institutions and Cultural Initiatives:

- in 1768 he established a free school for each town of the Kingdom and for girls and boys alike; he also ordered that religious institutes had to do the same; he founded a College to educate the youth in every province, and all this without imposing new taxes on the population;
- in 1779 he transformed the Jesuits House in Naples into a College for noble youth and this college was called “Ferdinandeo”, and founded a Conservatory for the education of poor parentless girls;
- in 1778 he founded the University of Cattaneo, the subsequent year the University of Palermo with a theatre, a chemistry laboratory and a physics laboratory;
- he established a department of astronomy in the Royal Palace of Palermo, where Piazzi worked; he founded another observatory on San Gaudioso Tower in Naples;
- he established 4 high schools, 18 colleges and many normal schools in Sicily;
- he founded a nautical college in Palermo to educate sailors;
- he established a delegation to supervise all Colleges of the Kingdom;
- in 1778 he established the Academy of Sciences and Arts in Naples;
- he opened a Library in Palermo;
- he reorganised the three Universities of the Kingdom and created new chairs: for the first time, surgery and obstetrics departments appeared in hospitals; he chose the best professors, irrespectively of their personal political opinion, such as Genovesi, Palmieri, Galanti, Troja, Cavalieri, Serrao, Gagliardi, etc.;
- he honoured music talents such as Cimarosa and Paesiello, and appointed the latter as music teacher of the Crown Prince; he gave the means to many young artists to get a specialisation in Rome;
- he enriched with new artistic works the Museum of Naples and the Library;
- he continued the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompei.