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| Castello Nuovo |
The Castello Nuovo: A gigantic medieval castle of typically castle like features, parapets, towers, crenelated bits. Stone stuff. Begun in 1279 it was completed in just three years. During the reign of the Aragonese king Alphonso V (1470's) a triumphal arch in white marble was built over the main entrance. A strange and stunning contrast to the brutal stonework of the medieval castle.
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| Triumphal Arch |
It is also interesting to note the early interpretation of the ancient roman triumphal arch before the renaissance really had taken hold. The interior contains yet another picture gallery. This one focuses on 19th Century Italian Artists. Meh.
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| Castello Nuovo with Construction to left |
Mike didn't like this castle and said it was ugly. Meh (it's the word of the day), I thought it was very "castle like" big round towers a big fat moat and strangely not as built up around as I would have thought for being in the center of Naples. This could be because there was a massive amount of construction going on in front of the town hall (with a giant facebook "like" thumbs up sign on it).
They have been trying to build a subway here; however every time they dig down they find some sort of archaeological treasure that delays the building for years. This one happens to be some Roman ships that sank in the harbor 2000 years ago. Fairly awesome find really. Doubleplus, if you are actually in the square turn around…yes I mean you, smell that? That is a McDonald's, over there in the North West Corner of the square next to the town hall. For some reason the smell of McDonald's can overpower the smell of Naples and the sea combined, which is quite a feat let me tell you. I have been in some strongly scented places before (Agadir, Damascus, Amman, Venice, The East Village, Gresham, a sun baked port-a-john at a music festival, the great garlic soup disaster...) but those, horryfying as they might be, were mere olfactory sensations, this is more of an assault. A vicious assault. The kind that makes it onto the 10 o'clock news: the smell has walked in though your nose rounded everyone up, hog tied them, pistol whipped them, ransacked the house and kicked the cat. After a while the senses shut down, you learn to breathe through your mouth when stepping outside, but even then some of the chunky fugged smell gets lodged in your the back of your throat and travels up threatening to make your brain dribble out of your ears.
They have been trying to build a subway here; however every time they dig down they find some sort of archaeological treasure that delays the building for years. This one happens to be some Roman ships that sank in the harbor 2000 years ago. Fairly awesome find really. Doubleplus, if you are actually in the square turn around…yes I mean you, smell that? That is a McDonald's, over there in the North West Corner of the square next to the town hall. For some reason the smell of McDonald's can overpower the smell of Naples and the sea combined, which is quite a feat let me tell you. I have been in some strongly scented places before (Agadir, Damascus, Amman, Venice, The East Village, Gresham, a sun baked port-a-john at a music festival, the great garlic soup disaster...) but those, horryfying as they might be, were mere olfactory sensations, this is more of an assault. A vicious assault. The kind that makes it onto the 10 o'clock news: the smell has walked in though your nose rounded everyone up, hog tied them, pistol whipped them, ransacked the house and kicked the cat. After a while the senses shut down, you learn to breathe through your mouth when stepping outside, but even then some of the chunky fugged smell gets lodged in your the back of your throat and travels up threatening to make your brain dribble out of your ears.
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| Cannonball damage |
And I really do love the strange pre-renaissance triumphal arch...it's quirky.
The interior courtyard had a great looking rose window. Looked very much like the set of some BBC production of Shakespere.
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| Interior courtyard of Castello Nuovo |
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