Piazza del Plebiscito

In front of you opens the largest square in Naples. It used to be called Largo di Palazzo, the open space in front of the Royal Palace where festivals, parades and handouts of food to the people took place. It owes its present shape to two rival kings.

1From Murat to Ferdinand

During Napoleonic rule, Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law and King of Naples, began building a great forum here surrounded by columns in honour of the emperor. When the Bourbons regained the throne in 1815, Ferdinand I kept the colonnade and changed the plan: in the centre he raised a votive church for his return, San Francesco di Paola, by Pietro Bianchi, inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

The present name recalls the plebiscite of 21 October 1860, in which the Kingdom of Naples voted to join a united Italy.

2The horse game

The two equestrian statues represent Charles III and Ferdinand I of Bourbon; the horses are by Antonio Canova. Neapolitans have a tradition: stand with your back to the palace, blindfolded, and try to walk in a straight line between the two horses. Hardly anyone succeeds: the square has a slight slope that throws your steps off course, although legend prefers to talk of a curse.

On one corner of the square is the Gran Caffè Gambrinus, open since 1860, one of the city's historic cafés.

3What to look for

• The dome of San Francesco di Paola and its portico of Ionic columns.
• Canova's two horses.
• The semicircular colonnade that embraces the square.