50 Fun Facts About Naples

Naples is the capital of which Italian region?

It is the largest city in southern Italy and the third largest in the country after Rome and Milan.

The first Greek colony on the site of Naples was named after which mythological figure?

Her name means 'pure eyes'; the settlement stood on the island of Megaride and later Pizzofalcone hill.

What does the Greek name Neapolis, adopted in the sixth century BC, mean?

It became one of the foremost cities of Magna Graecia and kept its Greek language under Roman rule.

Which last emperor of the Western Roman Empire was exiled to Naples?

The Germanic king Odoacer sent him there in the fifth century AD.

How did the Byzantine general Belisarius get into Naples in 536?

The city then became part of the Byzantine sphere and later an independent duchy.

Which Angevin king moved the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily from Palermo to Naples?

Crowned in 1266, he lived at the Castel Nuovo and imported French architects to build in Gothic style.

Federico II, founded in 1224, is regarded as the world's oldest institution of what kind?

Frederick II founded it to train secular administrators for his kingdom.

Which event of 1282 split the Kingdom of Sicily, leaving Naples with the mainland?

The island went to Aragon; the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302 confirmed the division.

Which battle of 1503 won Naples for Spain from the French?

The city then remained part of the Spanish Empire throughout the Habsburg period, ruled by viceroys.

By the 17th century Naples was Europe's second-largest city after which one?

A plague soon afterwards devastated its 300,000 people.

What was the trade of Masaniello, who led the 1647 revolt against Spanish rule?

His uprising created a brief independent Neapolitan Republic.

Roughly what share of Naples's 300,000 inhabitants died in the plague of 1656?

It was an outbreak of bubonic plague.

Which architect designed the Royal Palace of Caserta, begun in 1752?

The Bourbon king who commissioned it later became King of Spain; it is one of the largest palaces of 18th-century Europe.

In 1839 Naples became the first city on the Italian peninsula to have what?

The line ran to Portici, at the foot of Vesuvius.

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with Naples as capital, existed in which years?

It was ruled by the Bourbon-Two Sicilies branch until Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand.

Whose Expedition of the Thousand ended Bourbon rule in Naples?

The controversial siege of Gaeta followed, and Naples joined the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

Why did Ferdinand II have the Bourbon Tunnel dug beneath the city?

Errico Alvino built it as a military passage linking the Royal Palace to the barracks.

The Four Days of Naples in September 1943 was an uprising against whom?

It ran from 27 to 30 September, immediately before Allied troops arrived on 1 October.

Naples lies between Mount Vesuvius and which other volcanic region?

The Campi Flegrei caldera is often called a supervolcano in the media, though it does not meet the strict definition.

Which two Roman towns near Naples were destroyed by Vesuvius in AD 79?

Oplontis and Stabiae were buried too; the finds fill the city's National Archaeological Museum.

Who is the patron saint of Naples?

San Gennaro was martyred in the fourth century AD.

What do Neapolitans gather three times a year to see San Gennaro's blood do?

The blood is kept in a sealed ampoule in the cathedral; legend says a woman named Eusebia saved it after his death.

According to legend, what did a Roman poet turned sorcerer hide under Castel dell'Ovo?

Medieval Naples remembered the author of the Aeneid as a sorcerer; the castle's name means Egg Castle.

Which empress was imprisoned in Castel dell'Ovo by Tancred in 1191?

Pope Celestine III pressured Tancred into releasing Henry VI's wife in May 1192.

The Teatro di San Carlo, opened in 1737, holds what world record?

It was inaugurated on 4 November 1737, four decades before La Scala.

The Veiled Christ in the Cappella Sansevero was carved in 1753 by whom?

Prince Raimondo di Sangro commissioned the marble effigy as the chapel's centrepiece.

Whose family holdings form the core of the Naples National Archaeological Museum?

It includes the Farnese Hercules, the Farnese Bull and the Farnese Cup, a Ptolemaic sardonyx bowl.

Which Naples Metro station, opened in 2012, has been called Europe's most beautiful?

The Daily Telegraph and CNN both ranked it top; it won the 'Academy Award of Underground Works' in 2015.

Whose 17th-century career made Naples a capital of the Baroque?

The city also fostered the School of Posillipo and Neapolitan Liberty, its version of Art Nouveau.

The art of the Neapolitan pizzaiolo is inscribed on which UNESCO list?

The city's historic centre is separately a World Heritage Site.

Legend says the pizza Margherita was created in 1889 by which pizzaiolo?

The Royal Palace of Capodimonte commissioned it for the visiting Queen Margherita on 10 June.

Along with the Margherita, which is the other typical Neapolitan pizza?

Pizza napoletana is a protected 'traditional speciality guaranteed' in the EU and UK.

The traditional Neapolitan flip coffee pot, the cuccuma, was the basis for inventing what?

It also inspired the Moka pot.

What shape is the sfogliatella pastry?

The name means 'thin layers'; Pasquale Pintauro began selling them in Naples in 1818.

Where was the Sfogliatella Santa Rosa, ancestor of the modern pastry, created?

The 17th-century recipe passed to the Neapolitan pastry chef Pasquale Pintauro.

The song 'Funiculì, Funiculà' was written in 1880 to celebrate what?

Luigi Denza wrote the music and Peppino Turco the words.

Which Argentine footballer joined Napoli for a world-record fee in 1984?

The €12 million deal with Barcelona brought Napoli its first two league titles.

In which year did Napoli win its first Serie A title?

The second came in 1990; the club also won the 1989 UEFA Cup with Maradona.

What name was given to Napoli's stadium in Fuorigrotta in December 2020?

It honours the Argentine who played seven seasons for the club and died in November 2020.

What was the real name of the Neapolitan comic actor Totò?

He starred in Toto in Color of 1952, one of the first Italian colour films.

Sophia Loren claimed a title as Viscountess of which town in the Bay of Naples?

She said in her autobiography that her father was of noble descent.

Which of these novelists is a noted Neapolitan writer, listed alongside Roberto Saviano?

Saviano, author of Gomorrah, and the murdered journalist Giancarlo Siani are also on the list.

Which Neapolitan applied art involves elaborate Christmas nativity scenes?

Capodimonte porcelain is the city's other famous applied art.

Which NATO body is based in the city?

The city also hosts the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean.

Naples's L'Orientale is Europe's oldest institution devoted to what?

The Nunziatella Military School is another of the city's venerable institutions.

Which 16th-century Spanish viceroy reformed Naples and tried to bring in the Inquisition?

The main shopping street still bears his name.

In 1544, about 7,000 Neapolitans were carried off as slaves by whom?

They were taken to the Barbary Coast of North Africa.

Which Roman poet, author of the Aeneid, was partly educated in Naples and lived nearby?

The emperors Claudius and Tiberius also holidayed in the city.

Which Byzantine-era battle on the slopes of Vesuvius ended Ostrogoth hopes in 543?

Totila had briefly retaken the city for the Ostrogoths.

Roughly how many people live in Naples's wider metropolitan area?

It is the seventh most populous in the European Union and stretches some 30 kilometres beyond the city.