Map of the Duke of Noja

The map was an important cartographic and urban planning tool for the city, an embellished art piece, and has been used even recently, for example, to document the genesis and original layout of a group of over one hundred twenty 18th and 19th century Villas, partly located in Herculaneum and Torre del Greco, collectively known as the Vesuvian Villas of the Golden Mile.

The commissioning of the cartographic study depicting Naples and its environs dates to April 29, 1750, when the Tribunal of Electors of San Lorenzo entrusted its execution to Giovanni Carafa, Duke of Noja.

[2] When Carafa died 1768, the project was not complete[1] and passed to the direction of Giovanni Pignatelli, prince of Monteroduni, who in turn enlisted the aid of architect Gaetano Brunzuoli, as technical superintendent.

The depiction dispenses with axonometry and any form of elevation, showing instead the city and surrounding area in a completely orthogonal projection that extends to the ground plans of individual buildings.

The Naples Royal Hospice for the Poor (L'Albergo Reale dei Poveri), for example, an immense structure begun in 1751 by Ferdinando Fuga, intended to house and support the poor of the Kingdom of Naples, is shown in plan view as it was designed, as a rectangule, 600 meters long and 150 meters wide.