Welcome to Naples, Italy
Naples is the largest city in southern Italy and the capital of the Campania Region. The city has a population of about 1 million, and together with its suburbs, the metropolitan area has 3.7 million inhabitants (Neapolitans). It is located just halfway between the Vesuvius volcano and another unrelated volcanic area, the Campi Flegrei. Inhabitants of the Greek colony of Cuma, around the 8th century BC, founded the city just a few miles from the more ancient town Partenope. For this reason it was named Neapolis (from Greek, meaning New City). Its buildings, museums and even the language spoken by natives bear traces of all periods of its history, from its Greek birth, until the present day. Although conquered by the Romans in the 4th century BC, it long retained its Greek culture. It was in Naples, in the Castel dell’Ovo (Castle of the Egg), that Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was imprisoned after being deposed in 476. In the 6th century, Naples was conquered by the Byzantines during the attempt of Justinian I to recreate the Roman Empire, and was one of the last duchies to fall in Norman hands in 1039, as they founded the Kingdom of Sicily. Frederick II Hohenstaufen founded its university in 1224. In 1266 Pope Clement IV assigned Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily to Charles of Anjou, who moved the capital from Palermo to Naples.
In 1284 the kingdom was split in two parts, with an Aragonese king ruling the island of Sicily and the Angevin king ruling the mainland portion; while both kingdoms officially called themselves the Kingdom of Sicily, the mainland portion was commonly referred to as the Kingdom of Naples. This kingdom was much larger than just the city; it covered about the southern third of the boot of the Italian peninsula. The two parts would stay separate until 1816, when they would form the kingdom of Two Sicilies. The two kingdoms were united under Spanish rule in 1501 until 1715, when Naples became Austrian until 1734. Under the enlightened Bourbon monarch Charles, king of both Sicilies (later known as Charles III of Spain), they gained independence. In 1799, a revolution, backed by the French Army, gave birth to a short-lived republic. In 1861, the kingdom was conquered by the Garibaldines and was handed over to the King of Sardinia. In 1862 a plebiscite sanctioned the end of the kingdom of Sicily and the birth of Italy. On April 7, 1906 nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted, devastating Boscotrecase and seriously damaging Ottaviano. In 1944 the activity closed with a spectacular and devastating eruption; images from this eruption were used in the film The War of the Worlds.
posted by Hills @ 10:15 AM
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