A royal residence, a fortress, a place of culture, a symbol of Naples
With its massive towers and its triumphant arch a few steps from the blue sea and the monumental Piazza Municipio, the Castel Nuovo, also known as Maschio Angioino, represents one of the most recognizable sites of the City of Naples.
A main location of the Neapolitan identity, a meeting point between various realities that study and spread the history of the Neapolitan capital.
History
Beginning in 1279, at the behest of Charles I of Anjou, the construction of the Maschio Angioino provided the then capital of the Kingdom of Sicily with a castle that combined the characteristics of a royal residence and a fortress . In order to distinguish it from the more ancient Castel dell'Ovo and Castel Capuano, the Maschio Angioino was called "Castrum Novum". The castle soon became a centre of culture and patronage, where scholars and artists of the calibre of Giotto, Petrarca and Boccaccio, among others, stayed.
The Aragonese, who succeeded the Angevins in 1442, continued to use the Castel Nuovo as a fortified royal residence, expanding and strengthening it further.
The grandiose Arco di Trionfo, built between the Torre di Mezzo and the Torre di Guardia, was erected precisely to celebrate the victorious entry of Alfonso I into the city of Naples.
Gradually, the residential character of the fortress was lost in favour of purely military use, which was consolidated during the period of the Spanish and Austrian viceroys (1503-1734) through the construction of further defensive structures. With the advent of Charles III of Bourbon, all kinds of factories, warehouses and houses were built around the structure. Between the last period of the Bourbon domination and the first decades of the unification of Italy, the castle experienced a moment of progressive decay, which was stopped in the first twenty years of the twentieth century when the Municipality of Naples began important restoration work which underlined and recognized the historical, symbolic and monumental value of the fortress as a whole.
Heritage
Currently, the castle is intended for cultural use and is home to various historical-cultural associations and foundations, such as the Neapolitan Society of Homeland History, the Naples Committee of the Institute for the History of the Italian Risorgimento, the Valenzi Foundation and the Civic Museum. The palatine chapel, the armory room and the museum itineraries on the first and second floors belong to the latter, where sculptures, objects and paintings ranging from medieval times to the late nineteenth century are exhibited.
