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About City
Naples
Founded by the Greeks in the 7th Century BC, the city was named Neapolis, which means "new city" in ancient Greek. In the 4th Century BC, the city became part of the Roman Empire. During this period, Naples was a Greek cultural center as well as a resort area, more for emperors and rich Romans who owned villas stretching along the coast from Misenum to the Sorrentine peninsula. During this period, Naples boasted a variety of temples and baths, much like the ones found at Pozzuoli and Pompeii. The city was connected to the capital by roads, while fresh water was supplied by aqueducts.
The city's patron, St. Januarius, serves as an example of the early history of martyred Christians at Naples. Located on the Capodimonte slope, the Catacombs of St. Januarius has sections which are earlier than the saint's supposed decapitation in AD 305. These sections are quite interesting for their early Christian decorations. Some other sites of interest include the Duomo's baptistery, San Giorgio Maggiore's ancient apse, as well as the Catacombs of San Gaudioso, which are located below the Church of Santa Maria della Sanità.
The foundation of the Angevin dynasty in 1266 increased the importance of the city, which was signaled by the construction of the Sant'Elmo Fortress and Castel Nuovo. Important figures of Italian literature as well as the artists and architects whose work so enriched Naples were attracted to the city by the Angevin kings and their Aragonese successors. Culture attained a status greater than even warfare under the yoke of Alfonso V of Aragon. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought with it a flood of refugees, as well as an explosion of the Byzantine arts.
In 1503, Naples fell under the control of the Spanish Habsburgs until Austrian conquest brought an end to that oppressive reign in 1707. Later, in 1734, Don Carlos of the Spanish Bourbons assumed the title of "King of the Two Sicilies" and ruled over the city.
In 1884 the cholera epidemic brought with it a taste for reform, which brought about the clearance of slums as well as the modernization of the water and transport systems. This spirit of optimism was crushed by the onset of World War I.
Fascism's rise in Italy, along with the Great Depression, deepened the darkness between the wars. No Italian city suffered as much or has made such an agonizingly imperfect a recovery as Naples. The 1980s was the earliest date that any organized attempt was made to restore the damaged and decaying monuments. The fact that the city came through the post-war period without suffering complete economic and social collapse is due to the strength and attitude of its population, as well as the Neapolitan character, which is a combination of great passion and endurance.
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