The Neapolitan Residences of Ismā’īl Pasha, Khedive of Egypt

Isma’il Pascià, which has been khedivè of Egypt since 1863, has been pushed by European powers to abdicate in 1879 and to leave his country going into exile. He decides to settle in Naples, where he arrives with 225 people as entourage, going to live in villa Piscione on the hill of Posillipo, while his son Ibrahim with a part of the entourage seems to be settled in the adjoining Maraval. The premier Benedetto Cairoli then gives the ex khedivè the permission to use the villa La Favorita in the current Ercolano, which had been built by Ferdinando Fuga during the years 1762-68, then bought by King Ferdinand IV and finally become a State property. The villa was already distinguished by an oriental style thanks to the presence of Chinese rooms at the second floor, but now it is adapted to its new guests by decorating the rooms at the first floor in a Turkish style. During his nine years in Naples, the khedivè must however think to settle in a building in Mergellina, in Riviera di Chiaia 9/A, in the current villa San Felice: Prince Tommaso di Savoia, duke of Genova, commissions to the Swiss architect Augusto Guidini the design of this villa in order to host Isma’il Pascià. This villa is then realized in a very different way compared to the original design and furthermore this Neo-Renaissance building had to face directly the sea, while then the “colmata” (an operation to gain large tracts of lands from the sea with the creation of new streets) and the construction of a new building line have definitively separated the coast from the villa. These three residences are different prototypes - with different values - for a villa on the sea: one is in the greenery of Posillipo, one other is an historical mansion adapted for new guests’ needs and the third should have been a new building inside the urban pattern.