Via Pasquale Scura

About this audio guide

This guide to Via Pasquale Scura in Naples asks why a man trained in medicine ended up in a Bourbon prison cell instead of a hospital ward. Pasquale Scura switched from studying medicine in Calabria to training as a magistrate, and built a rare reputation in nineteenth century Naples as a judge who could not be bought or frightened. That reputation turned dangerous in 1848, when he opened an investigation into the murder of the liberal deputy Costabile Carducci and found the trail leading toward a priest under royal protection. The guide also wanders downhill with the street itself, toward the shouting vendors of the Pignasecca market and a local legend about a bishop, a magpie-harboring pine tree, and an excommunication.