WOMENS OF NAPLES
Rosa Russo Jervolino
Politics and civil commitment: the life of Rosa Russo Jervolino, born in Naples in 1936, is characterized by a strong commitment to society. Daughter of Maria De Unterrichter and Angelo Raffaele Jervolino, both constituent deputies, Rosa has lived since childhood in an environment dedicated to politics and civil commitment. Her mother, a teacher and pedagogist, was among the first deputies to be elected and become Undersecretary of State, while her father was among the founders of the Christian Democracy party. Rosa graduated in law, became a lawyer and joined the Christian Democrats at just eighteen years old, working as vice-president of the Women's Federation from 1968 to ‘78. She was elected to the Senate for four legislatures (1979, 1983, 1987, 1992) for the DC, a party for which she became President from 1992 to ’94 before the dissolution following the judicial investigation of “Clean Hands”. She was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for two legislatures (1994, 1996) for the Italian People's Party and the Olive Tree. The commitment in the Senate translates into the numerous activities she carried out as Minister for Social Affairs from 1987 to 1992 in the Goria, De Mita and Andreotti governments, as Minister of Public Education in the Amato and Ciampi governments until 1994 and as Minister of the Interior (1998-1999) first Italian woman to hold the position during the D'Alema government. Once her institutional commitments in the capital were over, she did not abandon politics and her commitment, becoming mayor of Naples continuously from 2001 to 2011, for two terms in a centre-left coalition and succeeding the period of renewal started by Antonio Bassolino. In the decade as mayor Rosa Russo Jervolino, who settled in Palazzo San Giacomo, seat of the Municipality of Naples, had the New General Master Plan approved, encouraged work for the construction of Line 1 of the metro, implemented the decentralization reform and took a position in favor of public management of some services, in particular water. Other issues on which she focused were urban planning and the reorganization of the territory by promoting the Program for the Historic Center, a UNESCO heritage site, through 120 interventions with an initial allocation of 240 million euros, the redevelopment works of Bagnoli, the expansion of pedestrian areas and limited traffic zones and the integration of the new metro network, through the activation of new lines, within the regional transport system. During his tenure Naples gets the attribution of important international events, such as the “Universal Forum of Cultures” and the “International Astronautical Congress” in 2012. Faced with these positive aspects, Rosa Russo Jervolino also receives strong criticism on her work, in particular linked to the 2008 waste scandal caused by the difficulty in managing disposal following the closure of some landfills. In her private life Rosa Jervolino married Vincenzo Russo, a doctor from Abruzzo, in 1964 and together they had three children Michele, Maria Cristina and Francesca. She became a widow before she turned fifty, continuing to use her husband's surname publicly in her political life. In 2019 she was awarded the title of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
San Giacomo Palace
San Giacomo Palace, where Rosa Russo Jervolino settled in 2001 as Mayor of Npoli, is a building built in 1816, in neoclassical style, commissioned by King Ferdinand I of Bourbon to bring together all the ministries of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in a single building with more than 800 rooms. The space overlooking Palazzo San Giacomo, once Largo del Castello, is today called Piazza Municipio and clearly refers to the seat of the Municipality of Naples. The design of the building which is carried out by the architect brothers Stefano and Luigi Gasse, incorporates an entire insula of the town where the congregation of Spanish nobles was based with the Church of San Giacomo degli Spagnoli and the adjoining convent, a hospital and the financial bank. There were also the church and monastery of the Concezione and some private houses which were demolished, causing the works to continue from 1816 to 1825. To make the façade homogeneous, Stefano Gasse demolished the façade of the church of San Giacomo and created a high ashlar base with three main entrances. On the sides of the central door there are initially two plaques commemorating the construction of the palace, later replaced in 1865 by two plaques commemorating the martyrs of the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799 and the patriots who fell during the Risorgimento. The Palace housed the Presidency of the Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Interior; the Ministries of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, the Ministry of War, the Navy and the Ministry of Finance. In the part on Toledo street, there were also the Ministries of Public Works, Education, Agriculture and Commerce. Stefano Gasse also created the first glass and iron gallery approximately 160 meters long which connects the square with Via Toledo, which no longer exists today except for a short stretch adjacent to the vestibule of the Town Hall. After the unification of Italy, the building was acquired by the city of Naples after long negotiations with the new Italian state. In the 1930s, Banco di Napoli acquired the parts of the building that belonged to the state and built the new headquarters designed by the Roman architect Piacentini and inaugurated in 1939 with an entrance from via Toledo. In the palace there are neoclassical architectural and decorative elements, in particular in the entrance hall, two of the four original statues depicting Roger the Norman, Frederick II of Sweden, created by the sculptor Antonio Calì, are visible, while those of Ferdinand I and his son Francesco I replaced by two allegorical statues, by the sculptor Francesco Liberti in 1869. In the center of the mezzanine floor is the marble and piperno bust of Partenope placed here by the mayor Achille Lauro. Other busts are placed on the second floor, in the rooms leading to the Hall of the municipal council and that of the mayor and depict the Neapolitan gold medals of the First World War.
