NAPLES, THE VIRGIL’S MAGIC HORSE

The legend of the Virgil’s magic horse has its roots in the mysterious medieval Naples, a place steeped in traditions and superstitions. It is said that the Latin poet, having become a magician, protected the city of Naples from pestilence and sickness even before San Gennaro. One day Virgil carved a bronze horse that had the power to heal sick horses if they made three turns around the statue.

The writer Matilde Serao describes the miracle: <<When a disease invaded the race of horses, Virgil melted a great bronze horse and transferred to him his magic power. Every horse led to make three turns around that of bronze, was healed>>.

However, a letter of 1471 attests that it was Lorenzo the Magnificent who donated the equine head to Diomede Carafa, Count of Maddaloni, a great lover of antiquity; he exhibited it in the courtyard of his palace in via San Biagio dei Librai 121, where the statue remained until 1809, when the last Carafa prince donated it to the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. The original statue was replaced with a terracotta copy that is still in the courtyard of the palace.

The sculpture, probably, was part of an equestrian monument made by the famous Donatello for Alfonso V of Aragona, king of Naples from 1442 to 1458, meant to adorn the main entry of the New Castle. In 1322, the cardinal Filomarino wanted to put an end to the pagan rites that took place around that horse, so he destroyed the body of the horse founding it to make the bells of the Cathedral, while only the head of it remained. Since then it has been said that every time the cathedral bells ring, the horse’s whimpers are heard. In ancient times, in fact, on the base of the statue there was an inscription now preserved in the Museum of San Martino, which says: <<Here you see the head, the bells of the Cathedral preserve my body>>.

The rest is legend…