Palazzo Donn'Anna: what to see and tips

Palazzo Donn'Anna is the great 17th-century Baroque palace that rises straight out of the sea at the start of Via Posillipo, in Naples: a gray, never-finished mass among caves and the remains of Roman villas, and one of the city's most famous sights.

It was designed by Cosimo Fanzago for Anna Carafa, the viceroy's wife, with one entrance from the sea and one from the road. Anna died young, the viceroy fled to Madrid in 1648 and the palace was left unfinished, looking like an ancient ruin. Inside is a theater open to the sea.

The palace is private housing and cannot be visited: you admire it from outside, from the road or from the sea. Legends have flourished around it: popular belief confuses Donn'Anna with Queen Joanna I of Naples, who is said to have had her young fisherman lovers thrown from the palace at dawn.