DK Travel : Naples & the Amalfi Coast : History & Culture

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Reggia di Caserta

This 18th-century palace was built by the Bourbons. Neapolitan Baroque at its most refined, it is built around four courtyards and has 1,200 lavish rooms. Highlights include the Great Staircase and the Throne Room. The park has a number of huge fountains, decorated with statuary, culminating in the Grande Cascata, plummeting 78 m (255 ft).
Reggia di Portici & the Vesuvian Villas

The Vesuvian Villas were begun by King Charles III and Queen Maria in the 18th century. His Reggia (palace), designed by Antonio Medrano, was the first and greatest of the villas, the rest of which were built by other members of the Bourbon court. For the most part the villas are now dilapidated, but there are plans to save as many as possible.
Romulus Augustulus

The last emperor of the Western Empire died in Naples in AD 476.
Salerno

Renowned in medieval times for its medical school, this city has been almost entirely ignored by tourism. All that may change, however, now that the historic centre has undergone a restoration. The Romanesque Duomo and its treasures are a reminder that Salerno was the capital of southern Italy in the 11th century.
San Francesco di Paola

The impetus to build this imitation Pantheon came from the Napoleonic king Joachim Murat (1808–15). Completed under the reinstated Bourbon dynasty, the idea was to do away with the chaotic jumble around the palace by recreating a version of the ancient Roman temple to the gods and setting it off with arcades echoing those of St Peter’s. It dominates a semicircular piazza with the Palazzo Reale at the opposite end.
San Gaudioso Catacombs

This labyrinth of tunnels was built by the Romans for use as cisterns. It evolved into catacombs in the 5th century, when St Gaudiosus, a North African bishop and hermit, was interred here. You can see the remains of fresco and mosaic decorations.
San Gennaro Catacombs

Burials here date as far back as the 2nd century and the site was originally used by pagans as well as Christians. In the 5th century, the body of San Gennaro, Naples’ patron saint, was brought here, and the place became an important pilgrimage site. Frescoes and mosaics on the two levels of this vast layout attest to its importance over the centuries.
San Giovanni a Carbonara

This 14th-century church has no façade of its own but is reached by a double staircase through a courtyard to the left of the Chapel of Santa Monica. Inside are a circular chapel with 15th-century frescoes and basreliefs by Spanish masters Bartolomé Ordoñez and Diego de Siloe.
San Lorenzo Maggiore

Under the church, excavations have revealed 2,000-year-old streets, complete with shops and a porticoed arcade.
San Severo Catacombs

Naples’ first bishop was buried here in the 4th century and, as was customary, a large underground cemetery grew up around his tomb. Among the catacombs’ paintings is a fresco showing the earliest images in Naples of saints Peter and Paul.