Piazza del Plebiscito
Grand semicircular square framed by a colonnaded basilica and twin bronze equestrian statues.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples starts with an odd detail: one of the two bronze equestrian statues facing each other across the square carried no king for years. The story reaches back to 1807, when Antonio Canova, Europe's leading sculptor, was hired to cast Napoleon on horseback for this very spot, only for the emperor's fall to turn the commission into two Bourbon kings instead. Canova finished one horse and rider before his death in 1822, leaving the second unfinished until a sculptor named Antonio Calì won the right to complete another master's work. Stand between the two riders and see if their hands really look the same.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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