Pedro Alvarez de Toledo
Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo, Marques de Villafranca, was appointed the Spanish viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples in 1532 and remained until 1553. He is remembered for his patronage of the reconstruction of Pozzuoli, near Naples, devastated by a cataclysmic eruption in 1538, which eventually raised the new volcanic Monte Nuovo. Beginning by granting relief from taxes for any who would return and rebuild in the ruined city, Don Pedro set the example himself.
Many of the string of lookout towers (torri di guardia) he built along the coast still stand. His urbanistic planning in Naples is recorded in the via di Toledo.
He married his daughter, Eleanora de Toledo, to Grand-Duke Cosimo I de' Medici in 1539.
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Categories: People stubs