Castel Nuovo

Castel Nuovo — widely known by its later nickname, Maschio Angioino — stands in central Naples facing Piazza Municipio, one of the city's most visible medieval landmarks. Charles I of Anjou, the French prince who had just become King of Naples and Sicily, began construction in 1279, with building work continuing into the early 1280s. The new royal castle gave the Angevin dynasty a fortified seat at the heart of its new capital, replacing an earlier royal residence elsewhere in the city.

Little of that original 13th-century structure survives intact — the castle was substantially remodelled over the following two centuries — but one space has endured from the Angevin period: the Palatine Chapel, dedicated to St Barbara and dated 1307, which still carries fragments of frescoes attributed to Giotto, the Florentine painter whose work transformed Italian art in the early 14th century. The chapel is the only part of the original Angevin castle to survive largely as built.

The castle's appearance changed again after 1442, when Alfonso of Aragon conquered Naples and took Castel Nuovo as his own royal seat. The Aragonese remodelling, carried out in the mid-15th century, added the castle's single most recognisable feature: a monumental triumphal arch framing the entrance between two of the castle's towers, celebrating Alfonso's conquest. The architect responsible for the arch is not firmly established.

The nickname "Maschio Angioino" — by which most visitors know the castle today — is not original to the building at all; it was first applied at the end of the 19th century, centuries after the Angevin dynasty it refers to had ceased to rule Naples. Inside, the square plan organised around a central courtyard holds the Hall of the Barons, an art gallery, a hall dedicated to 20th-century works, and an archaeological route beneath the castle exposing earlier remains on the site — together with the Palatine Chapel, the core of a visit that spans from the 14th century to the present.