Naples City is on the west coast of the Italian peninsula, about 120 miles southeast of Rome. It is in southern Italy. Naples is the city of the southern Italian region of Campania. People also call it “old Neapolis.” People who had left an old Greek colony on the north side of the Bay of Naples, southeast of Rome, built it around 600 BCE. The Romans took it over in the 4th century BCE. Naples changed hands between the Byzantines and the Saracens many times.
Naples Italy History
In the 11th century, the Normans took control of Sicily. It was the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Naples from that time until the 19th century. Giuseppe de Garibaldi led an army into it in the year 1860. During World War II, Allied and German bombs did a lot of damage to it. It was fixed up, but in 1980, an earthquake did a lot of damage to it again. It is a big port with a lot of different businesses and a big economic and culture center.
There are ancient castles, churches, and a university to see and do in the city. In southern Italy, Naples is a big port city. It is in the area around the old Mediterranean. In the 9th century B.C., it was first built as Parthenope or Palaepolis. In 470 B.C., they changed its name to Neapolis, which means “New City.” It is one of the oldest places in Europe because of this.
Naples Italy History Facts
Even though it is a modern city, it still has important memories of its long and exciting past. As shown by the way the streets are set up, the number of old buildings and parks, and the fact that many of the city’s political and social events are still going strong. Its beautiful location on the Bay of Naples and the fact that it has many old levels of history.
This World Heritage Site, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, has all the important parts that help explain why the Historic Center of Naples has “Outstanding Universal Value.” The parts of the serial property are as follows: (1) the Historical Center of Naples; (2) the District of Villa Manzo; (3) Santa Maria Della Consolazione; (4) Marechiaro; (5) the District of Casale; (6) the District of Santo Strato; and (7) Villa Emma.
Naples was one of the most important cities in Magna Graecia, and it was a key part of how Greek culture spread to the Romans. It later became Civitas Foederata, which was an important cultural center in the Roman Republic. The ruins of a Roman theater, cemeteries, and catacombs, as well as parts of the Greek town walls found during WWII, are proof of this past.
The Byzantine Empire took over Naples in the sixth century A.D. After that, the Normans, the Swabians, and the Sicilians ruled it as a separate duchy. Churches from this time include San Gennaro Extra Moenia, San Giorgio Maggiore, and San Giovanni Maggiore. In the church of Santa Restituta in the 14th-century cathedral and in the Castel dell’Ovo, there are still parts of buildings from the 4th and 5th centuries.
Naples Italy Facts
These are some of the most important Norman objects, even though they have been fixed up more than once. During the rule of the Angevins (1265–1442), Naples became a live symbol of their pride, dignity, and power. Nearby neighborhoods and towns became part of the city as it grew. The Angevins also had close ties to art and architecture from the West, especially French Gothic, which they mixed with styles from Greece and Arabia.
The convents of Santa Chiara and San Lorenzo Maggiore are also from this time, as are the churches of Donna Regina and I’lncoronata, San Lorenzo Maggiore, San Domenico Maggiore, and the new cathedral. The Aragonese ruled Naples from the 15th to the 17th centuries. They made the defenses and street layouts better and built Castel Nuovo as one of the most important cities of their kingdom, mostly in the Tuscan style.
The Jesuit College at Capodimonte, the Monte dei Poveri Vergognosi charity, the church of Sant’Agostino degli Scalzi, and the Royal Palace, which was built in 1600 on one side of the beautiful Piazza del Plebiscito, all remember when Spain was in charge. When the Bourbons took over in 1734, Naples joined Paris and London as one of the most important places in Europe.
The history of building in Naples was important at this time, and it still is. Especially in the interior design of royal castles and other aristocratic homes that were part of a territory system that went far beyond the city limits. The National Archaeological Museum, the Certosa of Sister Orsola Benincasa on the hill of San Martino, and the Villa Pignatelli are all important homes from the 1800s.
