page_title: Historic Centre of Naples
section_title: The Ancient Center
hierarchical_section_title: Historic Centre of Naples / History / The Ancient Center
caption_attribution_description: Tavola Strozzi, view of the city of Naples in Italy from the sea, 1470. (Alfonso V of Aragon naval victory on John of Anjou). Museo di San Martino, Naples, Italy.
context_page_description: Considering that the site is of exceptional value. It is one of the most ancient cities in Europe, whose contemporary urban fabric preserves the elements of its long and eventful history. Its setting on the Bay of Naples gives it an outstanding universal value which has had a profound influence in many parts of Europe and beyond. — Motivation of UNESCO
  The historic center of Naples represents the first historical nucleus of the city. It contains 27 centuries of history.
  Mostly declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995, it was included in the list of assets to be protected; its particular uniqueness lies in the almost total conservation and use of the ancient Greek road layout.
context_section_description: The city has two true and original ancient nucleuses: the first is the hill of Pizzofalcone on which the city of Partenope was born, while the second is the zone of the decumani of Naples where the following Neapolis was born. In this last space, in particular, all the buildings over the centuries have concentrated until the 16th century, with the opening towards the west of the city at the behest of the Spanish viceroy don Pedro de Toledo.
  A particularly high number of cultural and artistic resources are on this site: obelisks, monasteries, cloisters, museums, the famous streets of the crib, catacombs, outdoor and underground archaeological excavations with Roman and Greek remains, including the Roman theater, statues and bas-reliefs, monumental friezes, as well as medieval columns supporting ancient historic buildings and much more.
  Only the ancient center, which incorporates the districts of San Giuseppe, Porto, Pendino, Mercato, San Lorenzo and Vicarìa which, more specifically, correspond almost to the area of the decumans of Naples, sees the existence of more than 200 historic churches to which the activity of famous exponents of Italian art are linked. Among the main artists there are: Giotto, Caravaggio, Donatello, Giuseppe Sanmartino, Luca Giordano, Cosimo Fanzago, Luigi Vanvitelli, Jusepe de Ribera, Domenichino, Guido Reni, Tino di Camaino, Marco dal Pino, Simone Martini, Mattia Preti and many others.
  During the medieval era, the city was divided into seats. These were: Capuana, Montagna, Nido, Porto, Portanova and Forcella. In this context the city was closed by its walls beyond which there was an absolute prohibition of construction. The characteristic that distinguished the ancient center of Naples, in fact, is the almost foreclosure of the development in extension of the city, thus favoring that "in height". The circumstance that the city rests on tufaceous soil has favored practices of raising existing buildings, drawing the material from the underground quarries already used since the first birth of the city.
  However, the shift of political power to the Maschio Angioino was a first impulse for the local aristocracy to drag their noble residences towards the western part of the city.
caption: The Strozzi Table. In the fifteenth century, a closed Naples in the ancient area is highlighted
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