Naples, Campania · founded ~6th c. BC · UNESCO 1995

Naples

The Greeks named it Neápolis, the “new city,” and twenty-six centuries later Naples still walks on the street grid they drew. Few places on earth have been lived in this long without pause.

At a glance

Naples sits on its bay in Campania, the third-largest city in Italy, with Vesuvius standing over the water to the east. Cumaean Greeks refounded it as Neápolis in the 6th century BC, and the old centre still follows the dead-straight lines they laid down. On top of that grid sit thirty centuries of building — Roman, medieval, Angevin, Aragonese, Bourbon — stacked so densely that the historic core was listed by UNESCO in 1995. You come for that depth: a layered city where each era left its stone in place rather than clearing the last.

Key facts

Region: Campania · Province: Naples
Founded: as Neápolis by Cumaean Greek settlers, 6th century BC; one of the oldest continuously inhabited urban areas in the world
UNESCO: Historic Centre of Naples (inscribed 1995, ref. 726)
Ruled by: Greeks, Romans, Normans, the Angevins from 1266, the Aragonese from 1442, then the Bourbons
Signature work: Giuseppe Sanmartino’s Veiled Christ (1753), marble carved so thin it reads as wet cloth

History

An earlier Greek settlement, Parthenope, grew on the islet of Megaride; the Cumaeans refounded the site as Neápolis in the 6th century BC. The name held. Under Rome it became a Greek-speaking resort of the wealthy, and through the centuries that followed it was rarely abandoned, which is why so little of the ancient plan was ever erased.

The decisive shift came in 1266, when Charles I of Anjou moved his capital from Palermo to Naples and began building it into a royal seat. The cathedral rose under his patronage, and the great fortress of Castel Nuovo went up in his reign. Aragonese rule arrived when Alfonso I took the city in 1442, recasting the same buildings in a new idiom.

Later the Bourbons made Naples one of the largest capitals in Europe and left their mark on its squares and palaces. Each dynasty rebuilt rather than replaced, and the result is a centre where Greek, Roman, Gothic and Baroque sit within a few streets of one another.

What you see

Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino) — built 1279–1282 to a design by Pierre de Chaulnes, then rebuilt for Alfonso V between 1453 and 1479 by the Catalan architect Guillem Sagrera; its triumphal marble arch marks the Aragonese entry into the city.
Sansevero Chapel — a private chapel begun in 1590, holding Sanmartino’s Veiled Christ of 1753, a recumbent figure under a marble shroud so fine the body seems to press through the cloth.
Naples Cathedral (Duomo) — begun in Gothic style under Charles I; home of San Gennaro, whose dried blood is brought out to liquefy each year on 19 September.
Castel dell’Ovo — the city’s oldest standing fortress, raised on the islet of Megaride where the first Greek settlers landed, jutting into the bay.
Spaccanapoli — the long, ruler-straight street that splits the old town in two, following one of the Greco-Roman decumani; walking it is reading the ancient grid with your feet, between walls of stacked tufa.

Practical information

Time needed: two full days for the historic centre and its churches; a third if you go underground.
Underground: Napoli Sotterranea opens the tufa city below the streets — Greek quarries and Roman aqueduct channels cut into the soft stone the city was built from.
When to go: spring and autumn are best; summer in the bay is hot and crowded.

Getting there

High-speed trains reach Napoli Centrale from Rome in about 1 hour 10 and from Florence in roughly 3 hours. Naples International Airport (NAP) lies a short ride from the centre. Inside the old town, walk: the decumani are narrow, dense and made for feet, not cars.

Nearby

Pompeii and Herculaneum lie under Vesuvius to the south-east, reachable by local train.
The bay opens west to the Phlegraean Fields and the islands of Capri and Ischia.

Sources

Wikipedia, Naples, Castel Nuovo, Sansevero Chapel.
UNESCO World Heritage List, Historic Centre of Naples, ref. 726 (inscribed 1995).

Find it on the map

Google Maps See the location on a full map → Street View Walk around the place virtually → OpenStreetMap Free community cartography →

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