 Introduzione
Also known as the Maschio Angioino, this Angevin forte was built for Charles of Anjou in 1279-82. This castle was built towards the end of the 13th century on the instructions of the Anjou family, and became an important cultural center where artists and writers such as Giotto, Petrarca and Boccaccio stayed.
The Aragon dynasty expanded the building with two towers and a fantastic Arc de Triomphe. However, apart from the squat towers and the Capella Palatina (with Francesco Laurana's Madonna of 1474 above the portal), most of the structure is Aragonese. The castle was once the main royal residence. The original bronze doors by Guilaume le Moine (1468) are kept in the Palazzo Reale. Part of the building houses the Museo Civico. The Cappella Palatina chapel is also worth visiting.
 Location
Address:Piazza Municipio, Toledo, Naples, Italy.
 History
The founder of the Angevin dynasty, Charles I d'Anjou, built this fortress, known from its beginning, in 1279, as the new castle (to differentiate it from the Castel dell'Ovo and the Castel Capuano). Under his successor, Robert the Wise, it became a center of culture, with the castle library attracting such luminaries as Petrarch and Boccaccio. Alfonso d'Aragona took up residence here when he conquered Naples in 1443 and marked his rule with a fairly complete rebuilding, including the five defensive towers now visible and, especially, the impressive marble Arco di Trionfo at the entrance. This highly important work of the first Renaissance (1443-68) consciously takes its inspiration from ancient Roman triumphal arches, recombining the elements, however, in a completely innovative composition of two superimposed arches so as to fit the tall, narrow space.
In the Sala dei Baroni, Ferdinand I of Aragon brutally suppressed the ringleaders of the Baron's Revolt of 1486. The Aragonese was capable of acts of terror, but they were also inspired patrons of arts. The triumphal arch of the castle's entrance (begun 1454) is theirs. Commemorating Alfonso of Aragon's entry to Naples in 1443, this ingenious application of the ancient triumphal arch design was worked on, at least in a part, by Laurana.
 Palatine Chapel
Across the imposing courtyard is the Palatine Chapel, one of the few remaining structures of the Angevin Palace, its austere facade graced by a portal with delicate relief's and a Madonna by Francesco Laurana (1474). Decorated inside by Giotto and his friends in the 14th century, the frescoes are now reduced to a few fragments, none of which can be attributed to the master. The chapel now houses paintings from the 14th Century through the early 16th centuries and graceful sculptures by Laurana and Domenico Gagini.
 Sala dell'Armeria
Next to the Palatine chapel in the left corner is the Sala dell'Armeria, the Armory, where part of the flooring has been glassed over to reveal the remains of a Roman villa and a medieval necropolis.
 Sala dei Baroni
Above the Armeria, with access up a long ramp of steps, is the current Naples city council chamber, the Sala dei Baroni, or Hall of the Barons, built for Alfonso by the Majorcan architect Guglielmo Sagrera in 1446-54. Its simple volume is topped with a late-Gothic Moorish-inspired octagonal star vault whose ribs, in gray piperno, provide a harmonious accent to the yellow-tufa walls. The hall gets its name from a famous party held here in 1486, when Ferdinand I of Aragon invited a number of troublesome, powerful lords to dinner and then had them arrested and executed.
 Museo Civico
The rest of the public space of the castle houses the Museo Civico, which holds an interesting, low-key collection of painting and sculpture, especially strong in 19th-century landscapes with views of a lost or transformed Naples, but also with some nice 17th-century paintings and the bronze doors that Ferrante commissioned from William the Monk in 1475 to record his victory over John d'Anjou.
 Useful information
Telephone: 081/5518470
Open: Monday and Wednesday-Saturday: 10am to 6pm
Sunday: 10am-1:30pm.
Admission: 5 Euro.
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