There was a settlement here,
Parthenope
, as early as the ninth century
BC, but it was superseded by a
colony formed by the Greek
settlers at nearby Cumae, who
established an outpost here in 750
BC, giving it the name Neapolis.
It prospered during Greek and
later Roman times, escaping the
disasters that befell the cities
around and eventually declaring
itself independent in 763 - which
it remained for close on 400
years, until the
Normans
took the city in 1139. The Normans
weren't here for long: like the
rest of this region, the city soon
came under the rule of the
Hohenstaufen dynasty, who stayed
rather half-heartedly until 1269,
when their last king, Conradin,
was beheaded in what's now Piazza
del Mercato, and the
Angevins
took over the city. With one
exception - Robert the Wise, who
was a gentle and enlightened ruler
and made the city a great centre
for the arts - the Angevin kings
ruled badly, in the end losing
Naples to Alfonso I of Aragon in
1422, thus establishing a
Spanish
connection for the city for the
next 300 years. Following the War
of the Spanish Succession, Naples
was briefly ceded to the
Austrians, before being taken, to
general rejoicing, by
Charles
of Bourbon in 1734. Charles
was a cultivated and judicious
monarch, but his dissolute son
Ferdinand presided over a
shambolic period in the city's
history, abandoning it to the
republican French. Their "Parthenopean
Republic" here was
short-lived, and the British
reinstalled the Bourbon monarch,
carrying out vicious reprisals
against the rebels. (The
instigator of these reprisals was
Admiral Nelson - fresh from his
victory at the Battle of the Nile
- who was famously having an
affair with Lady Hamilton, the
wife of the British ambassador to
Naples. Under continuing Bourbon
rule, or more accurately misrule,
the city became one of the most
populated in Europe, and one of
the most iniquitous, setting a
trend which still holds good
today. For the rest of Europe,
Naples was the requisite final
stop on the
Grand Tour , a
position it enjoyed not so much
for its proximity to the major
classical sites as for the ready
availability of sex. The city was
for a long time the prostitution
capital of the Continent, and its
reputation drew people from far
and wide, giving new meaning (in
the days when syphilis was rife)
to the phrase.
More recently, Naples and its
surrounding area have been the
recipient of much of the money
that has poured into the south
under the Cassa per il
Mezzogiorno scheme, and its
industry is spreading, if not
exactly booming. But the real
power in the area is still in the
hands of organized crime or the Camorra
: much of the coastline west of
the city - to Bagnoli - was built
by Camorra money, and, although
it's not at all publicized, little
happens that matters here without
the nod of the larger families.
Not surprisingly, much government
money has found its way into their
hands too, with the result that
there's been little real
improvement in the living
standards of the average
Neapolitan: a very high percentage
remain unemployed, and a
disgraceful number still inhabit
the typically Neapolitan one-room bassi
- slums really, letting in no
light and housing many in
appallingly overcrowded
conditions. In the late 1970s
there was a cholera outbreak in
part of the city, and until
recently it was thought that the
same thing could happen again.
However, Antonio Bassolino
, mayor of the city from 1993
until 2000, did much to promote
Naples and its attractions, and
the G7 summit, held here in June
1994, provided the impetus for a
much-needed clean-up of the city
centre. Bassolino was confident
that supporting Naples' cultural
strengths would boost local pride.
Scores of neglected churches,
museums and palaces were restored
and now have extended opening
times, particularly in the month
of May, in a festival called
Maggio Aperto. There's been a
burst of creative activity from
local filmmakers, songwriters,
artists and playwrights, and
saying that you are from Naples
gives you instant credibility in
Rome, Milan and other northern
cities.
Sadly, this surge of civic
pride has received a check with
the renewal of violent activity by
the Camorra, in the person of
"La Madrina" - godmother
Maria Licciardi. Licciardi
concocted an alliance between the
Camorra families, maintaining that
it would be more profitable for
them to work together and pool
resources from drug smuggling,
prostitution and protection
rackets. An argument over a drugs
shipment fractured the truce, and
the clans turned on each other.
Four of Licciardi's people were
murdered on her home ground, the
suburb of Secondigliano, and she
responded with brutal force: by
June 2000, sixty people had lost
their lives in a series of
tit-for-tat killings. Although the
"civilian" population
has not been directly affected by
these events, they have sorely
dented the city's self-image.
