the space

Made in Cloister is located inside the small cloister of the Church of Santa Caterina in Formiello, whose large monumental complex is among the most important examples of Neapolitan Renaissance.

 

In the nineteenth century the complex was requisitioned by Ferdinando of Borbone who supported its transformation into a factory for the production of wool and military uniforms. From that moment on, the Cloister and the area, later called Lanificio, change their intended use, becoming a factory that can employ - at full capacity - over four hundred people, indicating itself among the virtuous examples within the "industrialization program" era.

 

In the central part of the small sixteenth-century cloister a wooden roof is built which still gives it another element of charm: a marvelous central wooden truss, of exceptional size and structure, a rare example of Borbone industrial archeology maintained practically intact.

 

In 1861, with the Unification of Italy and the advent of the House of Savoy, in the Lanificio the orders of foreign exchange were suspended and the Sava family, which managed the business during that period, failed to reconvert production, declared bankruptcy and A very long trial begins with the new Kingdom of Italy, witnessed in the Historical Archives of the Banco di Napoli.

 

Quickly, what had initially been one of the most important monuments of Renaissance art and later an example of a virtuous industrial settlement, became an "abandoned" area.

 

A progressive and inexorable degradation of both the structures and the production and craft settlements that had, until then, connoted the entire area began.

 

The restoration of the sixteenth-century cloister of the Church of Santa Caterina in Formiello was the starting point of the Made in Cloister reconversion project to transform it into an exhibition and performance center open to the city. The small cloister, in particular, over the years had been split into different properties that used spaces for disparate activities (garage, carpentry, storage ...); from this condition of deterioration the restoration project started, which wanted to give homogeneity through the restoration of the ancient sixteenth-century spaces denied by abuse.

 

The Borbone wooden lantern in the center of the space, a rare example of nineteenth-century industrial archeology, has been restored, transforming it into the beating heart and symbol of the project. Since 2015, the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and the students in the restoration class who have brought to light the frescoes narrating the history of St. Catherine of Alexandria have actively collaborated in the restoration.

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