The Structure

RELAIS SAN SEVERO is located in the historic center of Napoli, which represents the first historical core of the city. It holds about three millennia of history and is the widest in Italy and one of the largets in Europe with its 17 km.

A portion of it, equal to 1021 hectars, was declared heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 1995, for its exceptional monuments testifying the succession of cultures of the Mediterranean and of the Europe. In the entire historic city, which refers to a wider territory than the historic center, the merit of an extraordinary concentration of points of interest is recognized: in this regard, in 2017 the BBC defined Naples as "the Italian city with too much history to handle". The particular uniqueness of the historic center of Naples lies in the almost total conservation and use of the ancient road layout from the Greek era.

Piazzetta Nilo (Nile small square) lays on the lower Decumanus, between Piazza San Domenico Maggiore (San Domenico Maggiore Square) and Largo Corpo di Napoli (Corpo di Napoli small square), in a position that creates a single open space formed by the three squares.

It takes its name from the statue of the God Nile situated in the adjacent small square and wanted by the Alexandrian community, very present two thousand years ago, in the thriving Greek-Roman Napoli. In fact, this whole area was the seat of the Alessandrian community, who also had a cardo reporting its own name: Vicus Alexandrinus (corresponding to today’s via Nilo – Nilo street, while according to another version it corresponds to Via Mezzocannone – Mezzocannone street, instead).


In this smal square there are: In questa piazzetta sorgono:

  • The baroque church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo;
  • palace Pignatelli di Toritto;
  • palace De Sangro di Vietri, where Relais San Severo is located at the 4th floor.
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Historical and architectural news

Period of constructione1506-1526 .
DesignGiovanni Donadio da Mormanno .
Client: Giovanni de Sangro da Vietri and Andreana Dentice
Main renovationEighteenth Century

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