The goal of the cemetery was to systematize the burial of the poor; those who died in Neapolitan orphanages, poorhouses such as the nearby Albergo dei Poveri (built in 1751 also by Fuga), and hospitals such as the Ospedale degli Incurabili.
Prior to the construction of this complex, the masses of dead were often buried in haphazard pits in rural or suburban areas of the capital.
Fuga, under the regency of Ferdinand IV of Naples, designed this cemetery; it consists of a large square yard surrounded by high walls.
[3] The entrance with a skull and crossbones in the tympanum has a plaque announcing in Latin that, "The just and liberal king Ferdinand IV, of the kingdom of the two Sicilies built this common cemetery divided into individual cells for his beloved populace, in order to avoid the congestion of cadavers and their odors from harming his people, and to provide proper burial.
In this cemetery, that medieval religious requirement for proper burial encounters the rationalistic momentum of the Age of Enlightenment.