Palazzo of Monte di Pietà, Naples

The Palazzo of Monte di Pietà is a historic building located along the lower decumanus (East-West road) of Naples, Italy. The lower decumanus is also known as Spaccanapoli street. It housed the Mount of Piety or Christian bank in Naples.

The Monte di Pietà was founded in 1539, after Emperor Charles V issued an edict to expel the Jews devoted to usury. Medieval Christians were prohibited by the church from lending money at a profit, although this injunction was often ignored in the commercial centers of the peninsula. In response to the 1539 edict, some aristocratic Neapolitans (Aurelio Paparo, Gian Domenico di Lega, and Leonardo Palma) created a non-profit organization to lend money.

In 1574, the merchant Bernardino Rota left in his will a sum of five hundred ducats to Monte di Pietà. It was established a brotherhood for the management of a pawnshop that in 1592 had as the first venue, the Palazzo Carafa d'Andria, but lack of space them to purchase for a new home, the palace of Girolamo Carafa.

Between 1597 and 1603, Gian Battista Cavagna, with the collaboration of Giovanni Giacomo Di Conforto and Giovanni Cola di Franco, built the palace with an adjacent Mannerist style chapel. During the uprising of Masaniello, the intercession of Giulio Genoino spared the palace from arson by the revolutionaries. In 1786, an accidental fire destroyed the archives and artwork of the Bank; the chapel, however, escaped the fire.

The portal has Doric order columns. In the entablature you enter three triglyphs that create two empty spaces in the frieze, in these empty spaces are placed two inscriptions, one of which is the date of commencement of work:

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