An Italian Castle Went Viral Because It Has Braille Descriptions of the Surrounding View

The sighted aren’t the only ones who can enjoy the view from the top of Castel Sant’Elmo, a 14th-century castle located on Vomero Hill in Naples, Italy.

Twitter user @TheGallowBoob posted, from Castel Sant’Elmo, a now-viral close-up image of a railing covered in braille that describes the castle’s surroundings. The Tyrrhenian Sea and Mount Vesuvius are just two of the gorgeous sights one can see from the top of Castel Sant’Elmo, and now the visually impaired can soak in the surroundings, too.

“More of this please,” the viral tweet from August 8 reads. Agreed!

The braille railing is actually an art installation by Neapolitan artist Paolo Puddu, titled “Follow the Shape.” It was installed on the roof of the castle in 2017 and won the annual Un’opera per il castello (A Work for the Castle) contest, which celebrates new ideas on how to improve castles’ connections to their surrounding landscapes.

The railing spans 92 feet and includes verses from Italian author Giuseppe de Lorenzo’s “La terra e l’uomo” (The Land and the Man), as well as a detail-filled description of the panoramic view, written in both Italian and English.

And according to Puddu, the braille railing isn’t just for the visually impaired — sighted guests can also use the railing to expand their own visit to Castel Sant’Elmo, knowing that what they can see is only part of this layered experience.

“The intent of the artwork is not to include the ones who don’t see and exclude those who see,” Puddu explained, per OZY. “Beyond the descriptive content, the work consists of its own physicality, its own rhythm and its own sign: The words create embroidery that invites anyone to follow the shape, to walk with it through a polysemic reading, spread over time and in the space.” 

Braille-ings should definitely become a new architectural norm.