CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/7/2015

The Maddest Dream a Man Could Make: Casa Malaparte

"It’s the maddest dream a man could make and realize," Karl Lagerfeld writes in his collection of photographs of Capri's infamous Casa Malaparte. "Paradise is found here, on this little piece of interdicted, inaccessible private rock. There is a feeling of immortality difficult to explain.
The house has no garden. The high mountains behind show only their granite faces and the sea surrounds the three other sides of the lower rock the place is built on, looking like a part of a forgotten aircraft carrier abandoned there. You can not feel at home here. Malaparte is still too present—in every room—in every corner. The house lies there as if life had leaked away, intending to return, but nobody knows when. When we had to leave, it rained again. The sky gave the impression that the night wept. We had to walk back for more than 50 minutes to the nearest lived-in house. On our way we counted 396 steps. We left behind this magical place sleeping in unseen arms of power and memory."