Castel Nuovo

The construction of Castel Nuovo, also called Maschio Angioino, began in 1279, under the reign of Charles I of Anjou, with the aim of turning it into a royal residence and replacing the use of the other two existing fortresses. The Ovo castle too isolated by the sea and far from the city, and the Capuano, too far from the coast.

Due to its strategic position, the new castle covered not only the characteristics of a royal residence, but also those of a fortress. From the beginning it was called Castrum Novum to distinguish it from the ancient Ovo and Capuano.

In 1443, Alfonso the Magnanimous ordered the reconstruction of the castle, already designed to house the first pieces of artillery that were beginning to be used in Italy. As the seat of the court of Naples, it witnessed the political and military events of the time.

During his stay in Naples, Alfonso de Borja had to attend to all the orders received by the monarch, among others that of the legal organization of the new kingdom.

In 1495, the French king, Charles VIII occupied it in his invasion of Naples.

Goffredo Borgia and his wife, Sancha, lived in this fortress for a time.

The castle, with a trapezoidal floor plan, protected by five cylindrical towers, preserves the magnificent white marble triumphal arch at the entrance door, built in 1470 to commemorate the entry of Alfonso V of Aragon into Naples in 1443.

Once inside the large central courtyard, you access the Palatine Chapel, from the 14th century, painted with frescoes that represent the stories of the Old and New Testaments, the Barons' Room, the most important room in the castle, which you go up through a 15th century staircase built in the Catalan Gothic style.

It is called the Barons' Room because here, in 1486, the barons who had conspired against Ferrante I of Aragon, invited to his niece's wedding, were arrested.

The chapel of Purgatory was built in 1580 in the remodeling carried out by the Spanish viceroys. Those sentenced to death received the sacraments here before being executed. 

Archaeological remains from Roman times have been recovered in the rooms located below the Barons' Room. A space that functioned as an armory and as a necropolis.

In the museum area, the bronze door that Ferrante I, in which the monarch wanted to immortalize his victory in 1486 against John of Anjou and the rebel barons, is preserved.