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Today’s Tribunali Street, so called because it ends in front of Capuano Castle (seat of the Palace of Justice since the 16th century), corresponds to the ancient Decumanus Major which crossed the ancient city of Neapolis, founded by the Greeks for its entire length. in the fifth century BC, the current Naples Italy. The Decumanus Major is a thoroughfare of the ancient center of Naples Italy and, together with the Lower and Upper Decumanus, one of the three main streets of the ancient Greek urban layout. The road, urbanistically the most important of the three, is the heart of the decumanus of Naples. The Major Decumanus starts roughly from Port’Alba and Bellini Square (where there are the first Greek walls of the historic center of Naples Italy) continuing along San Pietro a Majella Street and Tribunali Street, which crosses with Duomo Street and then ends at Capuano Castle. The latter is the reason why the street has been called the street of the courts since the sixteenth century. In fact, the Capuano Castle, since the beginning of the sixteenth century, by the will of Don Pedro of Toledo, assumed the role of court of the city. In a central position […]

Castel dell’Ovo is the oldest castle in the city of Naples Italy and is one of the elements that stand out most in the famous panorama of the gulf. Il rises on the islet of Megaride where, according to legend, the mermaid Parthenope landed there and gave the first name to the ancient city, the first settlement of the Greeks, the Cumans, in the mid-7th century BC. One of the most imaginative Neapolitan legends would trace its name to the egg that Virgil would have hidden inside a cage in the basement of the castle. The place where the egg was kept was closed by heavy locks and kept secret because the good fortune of the castle depended on that egg. From that moment on, the fate not only of the Castle, but also of the entire city of Naples Italy, was linked to that egg, certainly a support that we could define as a bit fragile, but still something to hold onto for a bit of hope. Castel dell’Ovo is located on the islet of Megaride, a strip of land from which the history of Naples and its ancient civilization originated. Today the rock is known by the name […]

The Maschio Angioino is a medieval and Renaissance historical castle, as well as one of the symbols of the city of Naples Italy. The name Maschio Angioino is not a quirk of the Neapolitans but has a much simpler origin: in the Middle Ages the “Maschio” was the main tower of a castle, the most protected one where the castellan took refuge with his family during sieges. Therefore “Maschio” indicates the role of fortress that this castle has played for centuries in Naples Italy. Angioino, on the other hand, derives from Charles I of Anjou, who in 1266 defeated the Swabians and moved the capital from Palermo to Naples. The Maschio Angioino was built to guard the city from enemy raids, the position in which it was built was of strategic importance and completed a defensive system that previously had as protagonists the Castel dell’Ovo, now too old and obsolete for the attack systems of the time, and Castel Capuano, in a not very strategic position and far from the sea. The project was entrusted to the French architect Pierre de Chaulnes, the works for the construction of the Maschio Angioino began in 1279 to finish just three years later, […]

In the heart of the ancient center of Naples Italy, along Tribunali Street, is the church of Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco. Crossing the threshold begins a real journey into Neapolitan culture between art, faith, life and death. From the small and beautiful 17th century church, which houses the precious marbles and the winged skull of Dionisio Lazzari, together with masterpieces by Massimo Stanzione, Luca Giordano and Andrea Vaccaro, one descends into the ancient and grandiose hypogeum which still houses the fascinating cult aimed at anonymous human remains who become special intermediaries for invocations, prayers, requests for intercessions. A small museum set up in the spaces of the elegant sacristy completes the itinerary. The Church of Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco is one of the strangest places in the city. Although in Naples Italy there is no lack of macabre places such as the Fontanelle Cemetery or the Catacombs of San Gaudioso or even other highly mysterious churches such as the Chapel of Sansevero, none can compare to this. In Naples Italy the ancient cult of the souls in Purgatory had been widely supported by the Catholic Church which identified it as a way […]

The Complex of San Lorenzo Maggiore, which every year attracts thousands of visitors and schoolchildren from all over the world and hosts important events, represents a sort of “trait d’union”, that is a rare example of continuity of life and testimony of the centuries-old history of Naples Italy. The excavations of San Lorenzo Maggiore, known as the Buried Neapolis, are located below the Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore, one of the oldest in Naples Italy, an extraordinary church from 1200, the Norman period, founded by Charles of Anjou and built above what remained of the ancient Greco-Roman settlement. The irregular reservoir of San Gaetano Square is what remains of a larger open space, corresponding to the civil and religious center of the ancient city: this area has in fact always been recognized as the Roman Forum, coinciding in turn with the agora of the Greek city. The testimonies of the past already emerge in the monumental Gothic basilica. The modern floor hides the plan of the pre-existing early Christian basilica, divided into five naves and preceded by a four-sided portico; near the main altar, the work of Giovanni da Nola, the mosaic floors of the 6th century Paleochristian apse are […]

The Bourbon Tunnel, is an underground cavity in Naples Italy that extends under the hill, near the Royal Palace. By decree of February 19, 1853, Ferdinand II of Bourbon commissioned the architect Errico Alvino to build a long underground tunnel that connected Plebiscito Square to Vittoria Square. The work was part of the public works that Ferdinand II had conceived, however its real purpose was military: it was to constitute a quick escape route to the sea for the royal family in case of riots and a quick connection with the palace for the soldiers quartered in the Chiaia barracks: the Victory barracks and the Cavallerizza barracks. The works lasted three years and were carried out exclusively by hand with picks, hammers and wedges, and with lighting provided only by torches and candles. On May 25, 1855, the Bourbon Tunnel of Naples Italy was inaugurated with the passage of Ferdinand II of Bourbon, but then it remained open to the public for only 3 days. The gallery closed permanently for economic reasons and for the decline of the Bourbons with the arrival of the unification of Italy. The path was abandoned in the following century, until during the Second World […]

The Bourbon Tunnel, is an underground cavity in Naples Italy that extends under the hill, near the Royal Palace. By decree of February 19, 1853, Ferdinand II of Bourbon commissioned the architect Errico Alvino to build a long underground tunnel that connected Plebiscito Square to Vittoria Square. The work was part of the public works that Ferdinand II had conceived, however its real purpose was military: it was to constitute a quick escape route to the sea for the royal family in case of riots and a quick connection with the palace for the soldiers quartered in the Chiaia barracks: the Victory barracks and the Cavallerizza barracks. The works lasted three years and were carried out exclusively by hand with picks, hammers and wedges, and with lighting provided only by torches and candles. On May 25, 1855, the Bourbon Tunnel of Naples Italy was inaugurated with the passage of Ferdinand II of Bourbon, but then it remained open to the public for only 3 days. The gallery closed permanently for economic reasons and for the decline of the Bourbons with the arrival of the unification of Italy. The path was abandoned in the following century, until during the Second World […]

The Umberto I Gallery, built at the end of the 19th century, is the most famous gallery in Naples Italy. Here you can enjoy a good coffee in the bars, enjoy the shop windows, or visit the pictorial beauties of the eighteenth-century paintings of the Church of Santa Brigida. The gallery has imposing entrance arches on the outside and two streets on the inside with an elegant floor with marble inlays that cross orthogonally under the dome. Admiring the majesty of the Umberto I Gallery in Naples Italy it is difficult to believe that it was built in just 3 years. Begun in 1887 and finished in 1890, it was built in the same years in which, in Paris, Gustave Eiffel built his famous Eiffel Tower. The Umberto I Gallery in Naples had nothing to envy to the monument with which it rivaled for the beauty and complexity of the structure. The numbers of this construction made heads spin: maximum length 147 meters, width 15, height 34 and a half, the top of the dome at 57 meters. In a short time the Gallery became the “worldly” center of Naples Italy, also thanks to its proximity to the most important […]