Napoli - Castel Nuovo

Napoli is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy. Its metropolitan area has a population of more than 3 million.

Founded by Greek settlers before 900 BC, Napoli was an important part of Magna Graecia and played a major role in the merging of Greek and Roman society.

Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire Napoli was shortly ruled by the Ostrogoths. Byzantine troops captured the city in 536m but after the Byzantine exarchate Ravenna fell a Duchy of Naples was created. Over centuries the Duchy´s relations to Rome or Byzanz were hard-fought. In 836 Napoli could repel a siege of Lombard troops with the help of the Saracens, what did not prevent Muhammad I Abu 'l-Abbas in the 850s loot Napoli. In the 11th century, the Duchy hired Norman mercenaries and about 1140 it came under Norman control under Roger II, then King of Sicily.

In 1228 Emperor Frederick II founded the first university in Europe here, making Napoli the intellectual centre of the kingdom. The conflict between the House of Hohenstaufen and the Papacy led in 1266 to Pope Innocent IV crowning the Angevin duke Charles I King of Sicily. Charles officially moved the capital from Palermo to Napoli.

In 1282 after the "Sicilian Vespers", a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily against the rule of King Charles I, the Kingdom of Sicily was divided into two. The Angevin Kingdom of Naples included the southern part of the Italian peninsula, while the island of Sicily became the Aragonese Kingdom of Sicily.

By the 17th century, Naples had become Europe's second-largest city – second only to Paris – with around 250000 inhabitants.

The Castel Nuovo (aka "Maschio Angioino") was erected by Charles I of Anjou, in 1279 after he had in 1266, defeated the Hohenstaufens. He then ascended to the throne of Sicily and transferred the capital from Palermo to the city of Napoli.

Charles I never lived here. Following the War of the Sicilian Vespers, the new palace remained unused until 1285, the year of the death of Charles I.

Charles II of Naples enlarged the castle and moved with the court to the new residence. In 1309 Robert, King of Naples, moved in and again renovated and expanded it. Joanna I of Naples, fled to France in 1347, and abandoned it to the assaults of the army of King Louis I of Hungary. He had come to avenge the death of his brother who was killed by a palace plot. The castle was looted and on its return, the queen was forced to radical restructuring. During the second expedition of Louis against Naples the castle, where the queen had found refuge, resisted the assaults.

In 1414 Joanna II of Naples ascended the throne as the last Angevin dynasty. In 1443 Alfonso V of Aragon had conquered the throne of Naples. He established a court here and the fortress was completely rebuilt in its present form.

King Ferdinand I of Naples ended here, what is known as the "Conspiracy of the Barons". Many nobles strongly opposed the policies of centralization by the Aragonese, the new dynasty of Napoli. In 1486 the king invited the conspirators under the pretext of a wedding party. He then ordered his soldiers to bar the doors, had them arrested, punishing many of them with the death sentence.