03 Jun 2018

Neapolitan stories and legends

Every city tells a lot about itself through myths and legends that are handed down over time. Even the city of Naples is not immune to the charm of legends and every place in the city holds stories really curious and sometimes full of mystery.

To make you fully acquainted with our city, we have decided to write this little article in our blog where you will find the most emblematic stories about Neapolitan historical places.

Place San Domenico Maggiore

We start from the beating heart of the historic center, that is from the square of San Domenico Maggiore, where legend has it that the ghost of the noblewoman Maria D’Avalos, killed by her husband because discovered with her lover, seems vague still near Palazzo San Severo, looking for his Fabrizio and that especially at night it is still possible to hear his desperate lamentations.

Church of Santa Chiara

We move a little, to get to the Church of Santa Chiara to hear another story, which sees the protagonist always the ghost of a woman, this time of Giovanna I d’Angiò, Queen of Naples, killed by Charles III of Durazzo and to which the burial was not even granted. The unfortunate queen, according to the legend, would wander inside the cloister of Santa Chiara without peace and anyone who meets her gaze is destined to die in a short time.

Bridge of Sanità 

Instead, we now go to one of the oldest and most evocative areas of the city where the Bridge of Sanità  is located, a very important point that divides the city in two. It is on this bridge that it seems possible to hear the lament of all the girls who committed suicide in the past because of the pains of love.

Basilica of Incoronata

It is always on the subject of pains of love could not miss the story of the ghost of the young girl who died on her wedding day due to tuberculosis and who wanders inside the Basilica of the crowned woman. According to legend, the ghost of the poor girl in a wedding dress seems to appear only to unmarried girls.

Mythology

Stories about esoterism and ghosts that inhabit the historical places of the city, we could tell you many, we have chosen to tell you of course the most known and most important. But there is not only esotericism, Naples is also linked to stories related to mythology and to give you an example we have chosen perhaps the most important one that concerns one of the monuments – symbol of our city, or that linked to the Castel Dell’Ovo.

As many Neapolitan medieval chronicles narrate, the poet Virgil, entered the castle of Megaride and placed an egg locked in a cage that had a basement niche walled up, warning that at the break of the egg the whole city would collapse, hence the name Castel Dell’Ovo, to which the fate of the city itself is entrusted.