Napoli - Duomo di Napoli

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 present cathedral stands on the foundations of two early Christian basilicas. One of these dates back to the first decades of the 4th century it was partially preserved. The cathedral was commissioned by King Charles I of Anjou. Construction continued during the reign of his successor, Charles II (1285-1309) and was completed in the early 14th century under Robert of Anjou.

Over the centuries the cathedral was repeatedly expanded and changed in different styles. The facade and the campanile collapsed during the 1349-earthquake. They were rebuilt in the 15th century, but in 1456, another earthquake caused damage to the nave.

In the years 1526 to 1527, Napoli endured a siege by the French, a resurgence of the plague, and a volcanic eruption by Vesuvius. The Neapolitans pledged to erect a chapel to their patron saint San Gennaro (St. Januarius). The "Reale Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro" was completed in 1646.

On the first Saturday in May and on September 19, the ceremony of the blood miracle of San Gennaro takes place here, at the centre of which is a vial of the saint's blood, which in the meantime changes from a solid to a liquid state. If no liquefaction takes place, this is considered a very bad omen.


San Gennaro