Platea delle Celse, 1682 Particolare con via Toledo
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Via Toledo

Stendhal arrived in Naples on February 9, 1817. In his Naples et Florence en 1817, he immediately notes: “Here we are at the Palazzo degli Studj [the University], one turns right and it is via Toledo. Here is one of the great goals of my journey, the most populous and merry street in the world.”.
The streeet on which the palazzo is built had represented during the XVI century the “spinal cord” of the plan of urban renovation promoted by the Viceroy, don Pedro de Toledo, as soon as he took charge in Naples at the beginning of 1533. The street was lavishly paved with stones from the Vesuvius – at a time when the streets of Paris and London were made of uneven dirt. It followed the route of the demolished Aragonese wall, from the monastery of Santo Spirito until the convent of Monteoliveto; and it continued from there in a straight line until the new Royal Gate (porta Reale).
Via Toledo was therefore the byway from the northern areas of the city and its rappresentativo and direzionale centre, located around Castel Nuovo and the harbour.
The street bordered the regular chessboard of the “Spanish quarters”, originally the living quarters of the army. It had an irreplaceable strategic and defensive value, which however scarcely matched the initial purpose of making it a centre of high architectonic and social worth. Don Pedro’s initial plan, to attract here the most respectable Neapolitan families, was not therefore met with the greatest enthusiasm.