Italy is auctioning off a vast 16th-century castle built for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in an attempt to raise millions of euros to help pay off its ballooning debt. The palatial complex near Naples tops the list of 33 sites owned or managed by the defence ministry to be sold in November. The castle in Capua, near Naples, was used as a prison in the 19th century.
Credit: Casertaweb The sale has sparked fury from the FAI, Italy’s equivalent to the national trust, which is asking for the castle to be given UNESCO World Heritage protection. “We should protect our cultural assets, they are vital,” Dante Specchia, an architect who heads the FAI’s Caserta branch said. “Depriving the public of a jewel like the Charles V castle should not be debatable.
” Strategically significant The Capua castle, built between 1522 and 1543, is considered a masterpiece of military architecture and was strategically significant for Charles V whose sprawling empire once stretched across Germany, Austria, Spain and Italy. But unlike the nearby 18th-century Royal Palace of Caserta, which is now a major tourist attraction laden with sumptuous furnishings, the Capua castle has been stripped bare over the centuries. It was turned into a prison in the 19th century, before being used more recently for the manufacture and storage of military explosives.
Other properties on the defence ministry list include palaces and villas across Florence, Padua and Taranto, various army barracks and warehous.