San Ferdinando

"My eyes are dazzled, my soul stolen ....
In Europe there is nothing I will not say that it looks, but that could even remotely give a 'idea of what I see .."[Stendhal 1817]

Bordered on the west and north by Montecalvario Chiaia, San Fernando is the heart of the old and the cornerstone
of government policy and administration of the city, all of this until today.

With the conquest of Naples by Anjou (1266), San Fernando begins to take its own shape a "modern" because
there was a strong urbanization that made all pivot around New Castle, between the hill (mountain echoes) and the sea,
also known as the audience of Porto Pisano, for the community of Tuscan merchants who populated the area.

Adjacent to the Sea is appreciates the Palatine Chapel in the Gothic style refined, and fragments of frescoes by Giotto
and his workshop around the window.

Worthy home of a dynasty among the most prestigious in Europe, the castle welcomes this season
Pope Celestine V, Giotto, Boccaccio Tetrarch.
The years of the Spanish viceroyalty (1503-1704), arrived in Naples in 1532, Pedro de Toledo
first conceived the "regulatory plan" of the city as a cradle-axle straight, Toledo
(1534) built on the moat of the Aragonese walls with resulting material of the defensive structures.

Via Toledo is linked to the hill of Vomero through a ramp, the Pedamentina the center of a mesh made to the board
where they lodged the troops of the viceroy, the Spanish Quarters.

Domenico Fontana in 1600 he was commissioned to build the Royal Palace where stood the old palace of the viceroy,
was created in 1668 the dockyard of Beverello.
After the brief encounter Austrian viceroy Napoli returns to capital of the Kingdom with the advent
of the Bourbon dynasty (1734).
Here Charles Son of Philip V of Spain to architect Giovanni Antonio Mediano, in 1737 the Real theater of San Carlo,
the oldest and most celebrated musical monument in Europe.

The return of the Bourbon dynasty after a period of exile, ending with Joseph Bonaparte, was built in 1817,
the imposing basilica devoted to St. Francis of Paola, almost simultaneously, one year before the Teatro San Carlo is being
rebuilt after its destruction by fire.
With the cholera epidemic of 1884 with over 7000 victims Naples is fully drawn and rebuilt the city center.

In 1927 began the construction of the tunnel is then created Victory Garden (Molosiglio), the area of the former arsenal
Bourbon.

Today the main area of the District is a great site with ongoing projects of metro and underground tunnels,
in addition to Piazza Municipio was unearthed by the excavations of an ancient city subway.