Palazzo Donn'Anna, Naples

Palazzo Donn’Anna is the unfinished historic residence rising directly from the sea at the opening of the Posillipo coast. Its rough, monumental mass occupies the site once known as the Rocks of the Siren, and the building originally carried the name La Villa Sirena. The palace took its present identity from Anna Carafa, duchess of Stigliano and wife of the Spanish viceroy Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán.

In the 1640s, she commissioned Cosimo Fanzago to remake the residence, but the work was never completed. After her husband returned to Spain alone in 1644, the building was abandoned and fell into neglect. That unfinished state became part of its power: artists and foreign travellers were drawn to the grand structure decaying above the water.

The building suffered damage during the revolt of Masaniello in 1647 and during the earthquake of 1688. Today, most of the palace serves as private housing, while part of it remains a ruin. As local legend has it, the palace is haunted by the spirits of young lovers thrown into the sea by Queen Joanna of Naples. Look at the openings and broken volumes meeting the shoreline: the palace still carries the tension between an ambitious residence and a ruin shaped by time.