Ferdinando Fuga

[2] He later moved to Naples and notably designed the Albergo de'Poveri (an enormous work-house) (1751–81), the façade of the Church of the Gerolamini, and that of the Palazzo Giordano (both c.1780,).

In 1730, after a brief stay in Naples, Fuga was commissioned by Pope Clement XII to design his family home Palazzo Corsini, Rome and then later to build the Coffee House of the Quirinal Palace as a reception room for Benedict XIV Lambertini.

After his return to Rome, he was nominated as the architect of the pontifical palaces by his Florentine countryman Pope Clement XII Corsini, a position later confirmed by Benedict XIV.

In both cases, care was taken not to mar the mosaics of the medieval fronts that still lie behind Fuga's screens, which provided a narthex for each ancient basilica.

In 1751-53 he added an identical central block containing a theatrical divided staircase, lit with large windows that looked onto the garden parterres, which had been modified and brought up to date in 1741.

In the interiors, fuga managed in innovative ways to maintain a separation of the functional service circulation from the suites of parade rooms.

Here Fuga worked as one of the court architects in renovations to the Naples, where the king and his progressive minister Bernardo Tanucci were changing the face of the city, opening new neighborhoods, driving new arterial avenues and promoting some social and economic modernizations in the backward kingdom.

Fuga's final design, centered on a hexagonal church, devoted one courtyard to each of the intended social classes— men, women, boys and girls—each with their separate entrance.

After the departure of King Charles to take over the crown of Spain, work slowed, and when it finally ceased in 1819, three of Fuga's five courts were completed, as they may be seen today, damaged by the earthquake of 1980 and closed.

[7] A second project with an enlightened social cast was the Cimitero delle 366 Fosse ("Cemetery of the 366 Fossae" one for each day of the year) not far from the Albergo, for which Fuga succeeded in obtaining assent from Ferdinand IV in 1762.

Façade (1743) of Santa Maria Maggiore , Rome
Palazzo della Consulta, Rome.
Albergo dei Poveri, Naples.