Castel dell’Ovo (which literally means Egg Castle) is the oldest castle in the city and rises on the tuff islet of Megaride, the natural strip of Mount Echia, on which the Cumans founded in the eighth century BC the city of Parthenope. The city was named after a siren who had died due to the insensitivity of Ulysses towards the magic of her song, and whose body was transported by the sea right to the place where the City of Neapolis would rise. In Roman times, patrician Licinio Lucullo built on the islet and on Mount Echia a huge villa that extended from the hill of Pizzofalcone up to the area that is nowadays that of Municipio Square. The property, named Castrum Lucullanum, owned an important library, which was later ministered to by the Basilian monks, who settled on the islet in the fifth century and created an important scriptorium there. In the tenth century the monks were forced to move to the area of Pizzofalcone by the military commanders known as the “Dukes of Naples”, who decided to raze the entire monastery complex in order to protect the city from the attacks of the Saracens. In 1140 the Normans conquered Naples and King Roger the II built the first Castle on the islet and made it his seat. In 1222, then, Castel dell’Ovo became the seat of the royal treasure and under King Charles of Anjou, it became the royal family’s house, as the treasure was moved to Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino). During the Spanish occupation of the city and during the Bourbon kingdom, Castel dell’Ovo definitively lost its function of royal house and began to be used both as a military base – from which the Spaniards bombarded the city during the Masaniello revolts – and as a prison. Between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, several “Café Chantants” were built on the island, among which the famous “Eldorado” and “Santa Lucia”, where variety shows in Belle Époque style were performed. The spread of these nightclubs came together with that of Neapolitan traditional music. On the seafront of Via Caracciolo and near the entrance to the beautiful Castel dell’Ovo stands one of the most beautiful quarters in Naples, Borgo Marinari, a small world of its own kind, which seems stuck in the nineteenth century.

Categoria: