Inquiring on Structural Identity of Sala dei Baroni Vault

The Renaissance Castel Nuovo, in Naples, built through the interaction of Majorcan masters and local building technicians, produced a fruitful contamination among architectural and building traditions. The construction of the imposing octagonal ribbed stellar vault, covering the Great Hall, the Sala dei Baroni, designed by Guillelm Sagrera, triggered the spreading of a stone masonry culture in the areas of South Italy within the Crown of Aragón. And, at the same time, the formal and constructional solution, traditionally used within the east Iberian area -of which it is by far the largest one-, was altered by the material, technical, and cultural local context, giving rise to a hybrid architectural and constructional result. The analysis of the vault’s form and construction inquires on its structural identity, showing that the formal and material peculiarities of the vault move it from that of a ribbed vault to that of a masonry dome.