Michela bonomo

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Naples is not the Bay The Maritimization of the Land and The Redefinition of the Port Michela Bonomo

AA Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mark Campbell

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Contents Introduction Naples and the Bay

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The Territory and the Port

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The Exploitment of the Land and the enjoyment of the Sea

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Strategies of Unification

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Systematisation of the Port

The Wound of Naples

27 The Economic Role of the Port 31

The Politic Role of the Port

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The Social Role of the Port

The Port as a Filter

39 Urbanisation of the Gulf 41

Maritimization of Naples

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Naples as a Portal in the Mediterrenean Sea

Conclusions

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1. Gulf of Naples, photographed

by Mimmo Joodice, 1970, Naples

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Naples is not the Bay The maritimization of the Land and the Redefinition of the Port

Introduction I still remember the first time I saw the Bay. The ferry was slowly entering the Gulf, like a lazy whale unaware of the danger.

It was a winter sunset, the time of the day when the sky of Naples tinges pink and the myriads of lights contrast with the dark profile of the mount Vesuvius, the most dangerous volcano in Europe. The silent was pervasive and anyone could almost feel at home, overwhelmed by the beauty of the landscape and the illusion of feeling welcomed. The coast of Naples lies to you, and the impression of it from the sea enchants the visitors like the voices of the mermaids in the old times.

If one would look at the bureaucratic denomination of Naples it would find “Sea city with inhabitants”, but no one could be more wrong. Yet Naples is on the sea and the third most populous of the Italian peninsula. However the sea is only understood and experienced entering the bay, it somehow disappears when looking towards it from the coast. “Naples is not the bay” as someone argued, and yet its natural condition would contradict this definition. The point of contact between land and sea in the specific context of the Gulf of Naples in the Mediterranean basin it is quite unique. In this light examining the port in Naples question whether we could identify a new typology or if here represents its exception.

The condition of the city ports, facing the Mediterranean has changed with its sea, in the city-ports of today the trajectory of tourists, transporters, commuters and freight transporters often run parallel. The port as the waterfront, the façade facing the sea, intended as a space in between, had the role of merging the two opposite realties of land and water. While in the past the harbour was an integral part of the city, now it is an external body. The exasperation of this conflict it is exemplified, by the case of Naples The thesis presents this condition through the historiographical analysis of their interrelationship; identifying three moments when a strategic urban approach on a territorial scale has had an impact on the economic role of the port. Arguing if this condition it is ontological to the problem or if it can be reversed the paper would explore possible ways to intend this relationship.In identifying the more economical and political issues, which also contribute to this divorce the paper, will envision new forms of understanding a possible unity.

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2. Synchronic Map of the Gulf of Naples showing topography and infrastructure and ferry routes.

Michela Bonomo Diploma 14 work

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The Port represents a physical boundary between the elements and, at the same time, it embodies the main form of exploitation of the land, by somehow retaining most of the wealth that passes through it. The port of Naples in the Mediterranean basin holds a strong role and yet could be seen as almost extraneous to the land.

In this light a discussion on the opposition between land and sea it is crucial in opening new questions on contemporary planning. If on the one side the theme of the urbanisation of the sea in the context of the Gulf would be discussed, on the other a more innovative approach would be unveiled: how could we see a possible maritimization of this portion of the Campania territory.

Naples and the Bay 1.1. The Territory and Its Port There is no question on the fact that the architecture of the territory can become a valid mean to study and understand the political and economical factors shaping cities. As for the majority of the Mediterranean civilizations everything started with a “Noble Lie” with the purpose of claiming noble origins or, in other words, autochthony.1 In the case of the Port of Naples it is important to understand that its premises were linked to an external action, the arrival of Greeks population of the Rhodes, which claimed their right over the land, settling down around the XI century BC. The Bay presented itself as an ideal strategic place to gain control over the sea, and the Vesuvius at the time was covered by the green Mediterranean scrubs, hiding its potential danger. The city was located in the coves of the river Sebeto, in proximity of the Mount Echia, which allowed the exploitation of the coast on the one side and the protection from the enemy on the other, through the construction of a 1. In politics, a "Noble Lie" is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly told by an elite to maintain social harmony or to advance an agenda. The noble lie is a concept originated

by Plato as described in the Republic.

2. The name of the city Parthenope derives from the Myth of Mermaids as Parthenope one of the Sirens in Greek mythology. Her name means "Maiden-voiced"

temple dedicated to the marine divinity of the mermaids.2 The city of Neapolis was founded only after a series of internal disputes over the land against the Etruschi population, who were threatening the power over the coast of Parthenope. For its proximity to the old Parthenope the city was called “ NeaPolis” or new city. In identifying the first element, which caused the divorce between city and port in the selected case, one shouldn’t forget about the symbolic meaning of the water for the civilizations, which were born around the Mediterranean basis. It s crucial to stress that any other civilisation outside this enclosed reality had a completely different relationship with the sea.

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3. Historic Map of Greek-Roman Naples city structure, 1904.

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According to the study of the German thinker Ernst Kapp the evolutionary stages of the civilization encompasses three different moments, from the original exploitation, the “Potamic” civilisation born around the Tigris and Euphrates, to the “Thalassic” era, so the culture of the enclosed sea, to culminate with the discovery of the Americas and the Oceanic Era. In this light the foundation of the port of Naples could be identified as part of a civilisation phase where the foundations of colonies and the conquest of the sea symbolized the will to marry the opposite element of earth and water.3Therefore transcending the divinity on the ground of the inland and founding a Port symbolized the creation of a refuge from the unpredictability of the water.The Greeks intended the port as a colony, part of the larger territory they controlled, the Magna Graecia, in this light they relationship with the land was limited to the coast, which from they point of view represented the most crucial part to dominate, there was almost no knowledge of the inland. The expansion towards the sea was forced by the physical condition and rapidly Nea-polis became one of the main centres of trades together with the other cities, part of the constellation of the Magna Graecia, owning large naval armaments, which expanded enormously until the attack of Sulla.

The centuries, which immediately followed, originated the premises for a more explicit divorce, which in a different form it is evident still today, and found its origin in the rural exploitation of the land. The Vesuvius has been always present as a twofold force in the history of Naples. Covered up of vegetation was perceived as high promontory, during the Greeks civilisation, and for most of the Roman dominion. This conception persisted up until 3. Ernst Kapp (1808-1896) was a German philosopher of technology and geographer 4. The eruption which caused the destruction of Hercolaneum and Pompeii in 79BC were documented by Plinius the Young in the letter to Tacitus.

5. "See Naples and die" is a famous dictum which embodies the feeling of belonging to the city itself. It appeares for the first time in a song Munastero u santa Chiara ( The monastery of Saint Chiara).

the first eruption, in 79 D.C., which destroyed the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii.4 Despite the potential eruptions, the Vesuvius holds the role of the main source of wealth for its continuous production of fertile soil. It plays a dual role: provider and exterminator; preserver and destroyer; guardian and enemy; tourist attraction and killer. It is often to be admired by being a volcano of a beautiful appearance, masking a ferocious temper giving substance to the famous dictum “ See Naples and die”.5 It is reductive therefore not to consider the fundamental role that the volcano has had in the history of Naples in shaping the relationship between the land and the sea and the city and its port.

By allowing the development of a flourishing rural culture through the Naples is not the Bay

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3. Historyc centre of Naples,E. Duperac,A.Lafrery, XVI century.

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continuous production of fertile ground, Vesuvius had an impact in shaping a subject, which wasn’t anymore connected to the sea, almost extraneous to the coast, turning his back to the bay. The complete destruction of the Greek arsenal by Sulla (83BC) reduced drastically the power of the port, already decreased due to the enlargement of the port of Pozzuoli and led to the Roman inclusion of the city of Neapolis within the Roman Empire 1.2 Exploitation of the Land and Enjoyment of the Sea The political control of the Roman Empire over the territory of Campania marked the beginning of a tendency of bio-political exploitation, which represented a constant that continues until the birth of the Reign of Naples, in the XI Century. The way, in which the Roman expressed their control over the region, was by intending this territorium as a locus of power. By the adoption of a military control, the main infrastructures were built and the land partitioned into smaller modules, agri. In the specific case of Naples, the strong radicalization of the Greek culture made it impossible to the roman invader to impose completely their ethos. That is the reason why although Neapolis was effectively part of the Empire, the rituals and cultures of the Magna Grecia remained almost intact and the Greek language remained in use almost until the advent of the Imperium. A form of relative independence was sanctioned through the acquisition of the status of “Civitas Foederata “through the formalised “Foeadus Neapolitanus”.6 Despite this status of semi independence, the Roman had the possibility to administrate the inland territory, which was organised through the application of the centuriatio, a system already applied in the constitution of the military base (castra) and in the foundation of a new city 6. Foedus Neapolitanus was a treaty amended by Rome after the conquest of Neapolis

constituting of two perpendicular roads crossing: a decumanus and cardus.7Thus

7. The Ager Centuriatus was a system of grid consiting of the intersection of perpedicular lines. The square area generated was called saltus and often count 100 meters. Usually the infrastructure of the road superimposing this system was making the grid ever more dense, between a distance of even 11,5,3, and 2 meters

a victory. The inland territory was given the name of Campania Felix, a name

created a measurable piece of land, offered as an award to the centurions after evoking a twofold nature of prosperous and exploitable territory. While the coast was left untouched, the physical control over the land was superimposed, this increasing a even stronger polarisation between the two natural conditions.

In this panorama the role of the Port of Neapolis shifted, by being an important military base for the Romans in their conquest of Sicily and later North Africa until becoming, at the age of the Empire, a crossroads in the Naples is not the Bay

The Centuriatio as Apparatus

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Casilinum

Via Appia

CAPUA

AGER STELLATIS

CALATIA

SUESSULA

ATELLA

ACERRAE Literanum Marigliano

NOLA

OTTAVIANO

CUMAE NEAPOLIS

4. Diachronic Map of the Gulf of Naples and its territory showing the structure of Roman Centuriatio grid. M.Bonomo

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Mare Nostrum, since the entirety of the Mediterranean basin was all under the same dominium. Naples became a maritime traffic hub and private fleets were soon importing and exporting various goods such as olive oil, wine and ceramics. The peace, which came with Roman political hegemony, led to a greater feeling of safety and construction began outside the city walls. Neapolis was slowly transformed from commercial centre to resort town. Therefore if on the one side the control over the land was practically actualized through the exploitation of the ground, the control over the coast took the form of the otium romanum or the enjoyment of the sea.

“The winter here is temperate and the summer is cool. Here the sea’s slow waves beat with tranquillity and everyone is assured great peace, otium and never-ending quiet … The circus and theatre are enormous and one can see the quinquennial games which are as important as those on the Campidoglio and what laughter at the comedies by Menander which mix together gags and seriousness. Basically, it is a mixture of Rome and Greece.”8 A series of villas were built all along the coast, representing a refuge from the political life of Rome: Neapolis became the favourite destination of roman aristocrats and intellectuals, attracted by the beauty of the coast, the temperate climate, the fertile land and the presence of the Volcanoes. The roman Villa represented the equivalent of the contemporary “pied a terre”, or of real estates: extracting value in the form of aristocratic abuse over the sea. It is quite remarkable to understand that the villa on the one side and the rural centuriatio on the other, were basically doing the same job: both acting to de-politicize of the territory with the mean of absolute control over the territory. This strategy, adopted by the Romans in any of their conquests, was a way to allow the control over a large part of territory without actually occupying the entire size of it, but rather positioning strategic architectural objects and infrastructure in the nodal points. Looking back at the foundation of the city during the Greek domination and the Roman conquest of Naples a progressive distance between port and city emerged. In these two periods we assist to a different control of the territory and of the coast. If on the one side the Greeks were interested in the strategic dominion of the promontory overlooking the sea, the Romans by shifting the control on the inland, initiated a strategy on the territory based 8. Publius Papinius Stabius, Roman citizen born in neapolis wrote this letter in 45 BC.

on the positioning of concrete landmarks: roman roads, centuriatio and villas.

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The Villas as objects for de-politicization of the Territory

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5.Farm House near Pianura, in the Province of Naples, photographed by Mimmo Jodice, 1970.

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The dominations which came after the Roman Empire realised that a possible unity between port and city could be achieved only through the unification between countryside and city, so therefore between rural class and maritime class. Paradoxically, the arrival of the Barbarians population represents a favourable event for the history of the port. It is with the advent of the Byzantine population that the issue of the social separation between land and sea finally found a compromise. With the intent of strengthening the economy of the territory, the King Belisarius, who conquered Naples in the 537 B.C, brought the rural population back to the city from the countryside in order to fight the decrease of population, which affected Naples after the end of the Roman Empire. In this moment the city was fortified and the city walls completed in order to protect the inner city from further invasions; within this project could be seen the first proximity of the Port with its city, naturally the city in few centuries included part of the small centres in the countryside, expanding its perimeter. A series of works were needed in order to transform the face of the port, which at that point was constituted by two parts, respectively the “De Illu Vulpulum� and “ De Illu Arcina".9 1.3 Territorial Strategies of Unification Until the antiquity all the different dominations gave to the port a specific role. If under the Greek domination the port represented the city itself, with the birth of Neapolis and the need of controlling the inland, started from the Romans, the port became slowly an appendix of a larger territory. All the actors involved in the story of the city realised that a territorial and social compromise between coast and inland was necessary in order to exploit the strategic position of Naples on the Gulf. Although city and port slowly distance themselves from each other, until producing the present condition they found the higher moment of unification under the Bourbons period in the XVI century. The Bourbon domination of the region, with Naples as a capital and the relative project of the territory in relation to the port could be understood only by underlying a series of architectural interventions, which 9. Illu vulpulum and Illu Arcina were respectively the dockyard and the storage of the Port

came before the advent of the Bourbons monarchy.

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6. Maps by Engineer Gianbattista Porpora showing structure of famr house in the settlement of Ponticelli. XVIII century.

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The three architectural moments, which are fundamental premises for the Borbonic interventions, are respectively the Commercialisation of the Countryside, the construction of the Loggias and the reinforcement of the port as a military apparatus.

With the construction of the Castle Capuano and Castle Dell’Ovo in proximity to the Port, representing respectively the fortress of the political

Comercialisation of the Countryside

and economic powers, the city started acquiring a stronger symbolic control over the territory. The two castles were positioned towards the inland and towards the sea, suggesting in fact a new type of territorial politics, focus on the control of Land and Sea simultaneously. Their construction underlines a new urban strategy, which became vital for the survival of the city itself: the so-called “commercialization of the countryside”.10 This term used by the historian Galasso identifies a series of economic networks, which started proliferating between the city and the small centres constellating the countryside. The progressive transformation of the centuriatio grid, and its relevant fragmentation into smaller parcels, had the effect of intensifying the cultivation of fruit trees, olive trees and arable land in the territory comprised between the city of Naples and Caserta. Within this grid a series of smaller settlements started to emerge often, spread around the larger rural farms of Monasteries.11 The consequent high productivity deriving from such centres contributed to the concrete redefinition of a new rural subjects formed by richer entrepreneurs owning large parcels of land and the people who were cultivating them. The activity of intensive farming therefore produced a stronger polarization of land and sea class division, which led the Duchy to 10 G.Galasso "Considerazioni intorno alla Sotira del Mezzogiorno d'Italia".Torino, 1965.

11 Monasteries could be considered the initial centers of power in the coutryside by constituting a productive apparatus.

12 Filangieri " castel dell'ovo nelle sue piu antiche rappresentationi" Naples, 1934 13 Archina de dominio rege was a title given to the Arsenal, which under the Norman domination became of monarch ownership.

reconsider the role of the port and to strengthen it with the aim of reunifying port and city.

The Loggias

In this respect the Norman Monarchy, dominating Naples at the time realised that the exploitation of the products from the land could represent the key to strengthen the role of the Port itself, thus having immediate effect on the economy of the city. A series of law ratified the freedom of trade both by land and water, signed by Tancredi at the end of the XII. 12The Old Arsenal became dominion of the of the Normans Monarchy “ Arcina De Dominio Rege” and a series of merchants orders started colonizing different areas of the port: one of the main one was, for instance, situated on the beach of Moresino, the Naples is not the Bay

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6. Tavola Strozzi depicting Naples in 1472.

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community of Scalesia, originally from Amalfi. Another important community was one the Pisani, coming from the neighbour city Pisa, which had such a strong economic control of the port, that obtained the free taxation on any imported goods they were dealing within the Reign of Naples.13 This took the form of a street, the “Ruga cum Dominibus�, were they could exercise their markets.14 In this special position, the city acquired a very important role in the European panorama, becoming the medium between the Northern European traffics through the Italian cities of Genoa and Venice and the southern trades to the Middle East. This new subject could be identified in an architectural object: the loggias. Drawing a parallel with Walter Benjamin, the loggias were equally meaningful for understanding the urban life of Naples by the Port.

The loggias were the core of the life of the merchants, representing the space of discussion of the maritime businesses. If the arcades for Benjamin were the place of transit, where the Parisian life could best express itself in the act of strolling, the loggias were a meeting place in which the discussion on the Mediterranean transits were taking place. The loggias were the most characteristic place of the city, in which Naples expressed its truly metropolitan nature. Each country was given representation in the loggias, also obtaining privileges or facilitations.

Rather than investing a huge sum in the actual maintenance of the new dock and the port the Angioni pragmatically intervened on the urban fabric of the city of Naples though the first organisation of the other infrastructures serving the port. A new road axis was constructed along the coastal line, which had to facilitate the provision of materials and goods, on the one side and the transportation of construction materials to allow the expansion of the port with the Grande Arsenale. Looking at the miniature, which decorates the letters by the Farrajolo it is possible to understand how Naples was mainly characterised by the presence of a series of fortresses and castles, which were creating a solid defensive apparatus. During the so-called Pax Aragonese Naples was the theatre of a series of political transformation, becoming one of the most populous cities in Europe and enlarging its control over the inland.15 15 Pax Aragonese, or Aragonese peace was the period of only 50 years between 1443 and the beginning of 1500, which was characterised by a relative peace and prosperity

The expansion, which contributed to make it one of the largest metropolises in the Mediterranean, led to the re-consideration of the relationship between the city and the countryside. In the XVI century the pressure of the French Empire, which was threatening the stability of the territory, forced Naples to Naples is not the Bay

The Port as a Military Apparatus

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7.Topographic Section of Naples, 1663.

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re organise and precisely to re structure a military control over its territory. The ridiculous increase in population density, which reached 750.000, forced the kingdom to intervene on the old city walls, fact which was determinant in the relationship between the Castel Nuovo and the Port. It was urgent to establish a protection from north and south, in addition to prevent any possible invasion coming from the sea, and a new curtain wall was erected including the military accommodations and the army provisions. Together with the expansion of the city wall, Don Pedro from Toledo, extended the fortification reaching the Sant’Elmo hill and including Castel Nuevo within the main body of the city, in this picture the later called Spanish Neighbourhood became the fulcrum of the military power. In this light quite significant are the work on both the Molo Grande and the Molo Piccolo. By shifting the focus towards the western part of the city Don Pedro avoided the effort of reclaiming the land at the east side, which was characterised by marshlands and swamps. The effort of the remediation of the land wasn’t worth it, and the urban development of the city and it port could clearly be read as a territorial strategy.

These three architectural moments could be identified as attempts under different strategies of achieving full control of the territory and its port simultaneously. Despite the effort of the construction of a solid defence system and the multiplication of the docks the Aragonese Norman and even more the Aragonese dominion were not able to potentiate the mercantile aspects of the city so to make it the main source of wealth. Rather the title of Campania Felix was still the most appropriate title, which almost overcomes the sea connotation of the territory.

1.4 The Systematisation of the Port The beginning of the Borbonic period marked a new political era for Naples in which the city had to reinforce its role as a capital after a series of tormented years, which follows the decline of the previous Monarchic Dominions. This tendency is visible in a series of urban strategies which affected both the city and its port but mainly the territory as a whole. Looking at the largest canvas, spanning from the northern part of the territory, extending to the city of Caserta, the punctual interventions namely the Royal Palace of Caserta, the Complex of San Leucio and the Palace of Cardellino have to all be read as Naples is not the Bay

Filling-in and Legalization

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7.Diachronic Map showing Unitarian Territorial Strategy under the Bourbons domination.

0

10 km

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extensions of the power of the Bourbon outside Naples, with the intent of measuring the most powerful monarchies in Europe. Other than controlling the territory and representing a holiday retreat for the monarch, their positions establish an axis which it is directly linking the north of the territory to the Port of Naples to the south and expand to the east by the destruction of the city walls.

The Borbonic interventions underline the need of opening the city towards its countryside aiming for a more unified dialogue between these two realities.

If for many centuries the strategy of the empires, which dominated the city, was of mere exploitation of resources, with the Bourbons the architectural interventions have to be interpreted in the logic of the Empire propaganda, with the aim of potentiating Naples as the Capital of the Reign though the construction of important landmark disseminated around the territory. The monarch Carlo realised that the need of potentiating the naval fleet, meant re-building the image of the city and its port as competitive within the Mediterranean basin. Understanding the role of the port as driver of the economy of the city, the Bourbons domination represents probably the most prosperous time in the history of the city and it port. This it is mainly motivated by an acute awareness of the economic and social condition of the other Empires in Europe. Inserting Naples in the network of the other powers was a priority, and understanding the potential of the Industrial Revolution as a drive of the economy, a must. A series of pragmatic laws were amended, applying to the port and navigation, following the good example of the large ports in Northern Europe. A complete apparatus constituted by military supplies, academic institution and consulates were all aiming to reinvigorate the power of Naples. This politics of reinforcement and embellishment continued after the departure of Carlo, and was even more stimulated under the monarchy of Ferdinand VI. At this moment the city and its surrounding were the theatre of new important urban intervention which included the entirety of the Vesuvius Coast on the east side.

The proliferation of the Vesuvian Villas could be considered one of the most important historical events, for the infrastructure and port network of the region. With the need of building sumptuous villas, following the tendency already started by the romans, the aristocrats gravitating around the figure of Naples is not the Bay

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8.Port of Naples under the Bourbons domination, 1734-1836

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Ferdinando started building a series of palaces all along the coast.

More than 122 villas were built between the city of Portici to Torre e Greco, each of them were including a garden and a portion of rural land.

The typologies of the Villa, disseminated along the slope of the Vesuvius, by the coast, were revolutionary prototypes. If on the one side the buildings were the expression of the nobility, the presence of the rural land around them suggested the intention of creating a hybrid between the roman villas and the farmhouse disseminated between Naples and Caserta. The connection through piers of each of these objects to the sea represented a revolutionary strategy in the urban language of the territory.Although their construction and position was almost spontaneous, with exception to the alignment of the villas in the Golden Mile, they could be considered the first real attempt of bridging the Coast to the land. Moreover each villa had an access to the coast with a private pier, which led to a capillary infrastructural network by the sea. 16This dialogue between land and sea find therefore the highest definition in this historical moment, when it is possible to read a clear communication between the Port of Naples and this series of small harbour dotting the coastline.

The potential of the Bourbons interventions on the territory shouldn’t be discarded, as it represented the only time were an organic dissemination of architectural objects contributed to the urban and political unification of Port and City. The impact of the industrial Revolution on the Italian territory has not always had a positive outcome everywhere. In the case of Naples the 16 The Golden Mile was a road, still existing today, which started with the construction of the Royal Palace in Portici, on the east coast of the Gulf, in 1734 by the wife of the monarch.The construction of such building provocke a proliferation of other sumptuos villas, commisioned by rich aristocrates at the court of the king. They were stretching for a mile between Naples and Portici, and that's were the name comes from.

17 The builgding of the Granai designed by architect Fuga represented a strong element of the facade of the city toeards the sea, it was demolished at the beginning of the XIX century.

progressive industrialization of the territory lead to a prioritization of the land transportation to the sea transport and the infrastructure of the Port itself. To make an example the construction of the first Italian railway, which was highly supported by, the aristocracy orbiting around the volcanic slopes produce the creation of a coastal line unifying Portici to Naples. Although the infrastructure railway was acclaimed as the highest infrastructural achievement in the region, it represented the end of a potential maritime connection along the coast, as most of the axis’s running from the villas to the coast were brutally cut or interrupted by the rails.

In the meantime important interventions were happening in the port of Naples the construction of the Granai by Fuga enriched the panorama of the Gulf, becoming the symbol of a new type of architecture facing the sea.17 Naples is not the Bay

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8. Contemporary Structure of the Docks in the Port of Naples.

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The building could be seen as the first industrial presence on the sea and the starting point of the industrial development toward the east side which will determine a new cut in the relationship between land and sea. Important constructions, which were completed in this period, are the San Vincenzo pier, which led to the construction of the new military Port at the Beverello pier. At the end of the Borbonic period t in the 1860 the port was therefore subdivided in a military area (S.Vincenzo, the Main Dock and Molosiglio) and the merchant Port including the Molo Piccolo, the Immacolatella Pier, the Angiovin Pier and the Mandracchio basin.

With the unification of Italy in 1861, Naples will lose the role of capital and, with it the role of the port as a main intermodal crossroad in the Mediterranean, In the years following the unification until the present days we can underline the slow but inevitable divorce between the city and its port, mainly cause by the need of emphasize the infrastructural image of the city. By looking at the economic, political and social impact of the Port on the city of Naples it will be possible to understand the role of such organism in the development of the city and in the distribution of the wealth across the region and to determine if Naples benefit from its position on the Gulf.

The Wound of Naples 2.1. The Economic Role of the Port The port of Naples today is one of the largest seaports of the Mediterranean basin. It handles a total of almost 19.4 million tons of cargo, including 3.3 million tons in international and European Union traffic and 16.1 million tons of coaster. The Port also welcomes 9 million passengers, including 2.3 million cruise passengers and 6.7 million line passengers. Its architectural extension includes a total of ten piers, subdivided into a Passengers, Goods, Shipbuilding Containers and Oil Areas consisting of four major mooring areas for coastal traffic: Immacolatella Vecchia Wharf, Piliero Quay, Port di Massa Quay, and Angioino Wharf. Looking at this data, it seems unconceivable to believe that the role of the Port for the city of Naples today isn’t vital.

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9. Industrial Piers of the Port of Naples.

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The enlargement in scale and the size of goods crossing its area of influence suggest that its role in the economy of the Gulf is essential for the total provision of the country and for the traffic within the Mediterranean coasts. If looking closely at the economic situation of Naples, a striking misalignment appears. The port of Naples is at the 12th place in Italy for the transport of goods. Despite the size of its conurbation, and the high values in demography, Naples today it is still one of the poorest city in the peninsula, with a young unemployment rate of almost 30% of units. 18 To this extent it is necessary to understand if cities with ports benefit from this infrastructure in the overall economy, to better understand if, in the case of Naples such considerations can be made. It is crucial to consider that the technological development through which port facilities went through in the last thirty years have brought a completely different shift to the more general concept of port cities. Looking closely at the case of Naples, a comparison with another Italian larger port, as Genoa is needed. Although Naples holds a strategic location in the Mediterranean, by positioning itself in the corridor of the Gibraltar Suez Containers transports, it’s role today as a distributor of wealth within the territory of Italy is irrelevant compared to the case of Genoa. This is due to different reasons, first and foremost the importance of new traffics, which interested the corridor of the Tyrrhenian Sea and its connection to the Northern European Port on the Baltic Sea. Secondly this is motivated by the competitiveness of the Southern Mediterranean ports located in proximity to the Suez Canal, diverting most of the traffic directly to the Gibraltar corridor and to the Oceans. Thirdly and most importantly, Genoa, differently from Naples was able to develop, at the beginning of the XIX a strong infrastructural apparatus on its territory, through which the northern Italian city and most of the continental centers of Europe could benefit from. Naples on the other hand, is still paying the debt with an economical condition, which started after the fall of the Bourbons monarchy, with its lost role of capital.

The fall of the Borbonic Monarchy marked for Naples a new historic phase, characterized by a series of political and institutional transformation on one 18 These data are from the Chamber of Commerce survey on Naples of 2013-2015.

side and a tragic economic and social crisis on the other.

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Once it lost status capital status, Naples saw increasing number of potential competitors in the commercial trades: it was precisely by comparison with the development of trade and the different manufacturing companies in other Italian cities that showed the stagnation in which the Neapolitan Economy languished also provocked by the sloweless of its economical progress.

However, the process of dismantling trade Neapolitan-which according to a unique historiographical judgment -would not have granted an alternative to industrialization as a way to lift the city from its economic stagnation it was already in place before unification and did not reach a crescendo following the 1860.A situation from a long historical process that began to reveal its gravity around the 80s, accentuated further in the years between the two centuries with the Questione Meridionale or Southern Issue.

In the selected context this phenomenon took the name of Naples Issue, being characterised by a series of factors : the inability to create business relationships with the agricultural hinterland, the imbalance between resources and population in a context of profound social disintegration, the stratification of classes, the reducing consumption and the narrowness of an internal market. This elements togheter with the isolation of the city, increased by the poor network communications with the rest of Mezzogiorno- during the years of the big boom rail infrastructureexasperated the economy. Following the aim of balancing the gap between north and south the centralised government invested in the heavy industrialization of area of Naples, where a series of large factories were built following the law of industrialisation emended in 1904. The most relevant factories implants are the Ilva by Bagnoli and Fuorigrotta or a series of factories of various production (textile, petrochemical mechanical) around the area of Pozzuoli, and the coastal Vesuvius bay in Castellamare of Stabia and Torre Annunziata. In the rush of industrializing the south, the role of the port as a potential source of wealth and productivity was discarded.

The decentralisation of the role of the port and the series of technological developments affecting the maritime trades had a even more strong impact of the economy of Naples. The advent of the large oil companies and the phenomenon of the containerization required the construction of a series of infrastructure, connected with the port and spread logistically on the territory.

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If the cities of Genoa and Marseilles managed to delocalize and restructure the different areas of the Port, this didn’t happen in the port of Naples. The will to maintain an enclosed organism represented the decline of the Port itself, which still today follow the illusion of being able to contain most of the function within one the port areaIf on the one side this phenomenon is common in any western post industrial economy, in the case of Naples and the Southern Italy in general, the shift between an economy based on agriculture to a post industrial one, happened too quickly, thus leaving the Port as a machine in the hand of others, not benefiting the economy of its own inhabitants.The port became the stage for action of another political subject, which even more contributed to the isolation of the port from the city from a more jurisdictional level.

2.2.The Political Role of the Port The Southern Issue produced and intensified a series of social and political consequences, which today still represent a stigma; in the case of Naples this is represented by the criminal organisation of the Camorra.The Camorra criminal organisation first emerged during the chaotic power vacuum in the years between 1799 and 1815, when a Neapolitan Republic was proclaimed on the wave of the French Revolution. This criminal organisation experienced an evolution in its main organisational body, from being a series of gangs living off theft and extortion; to the present day as a fixed structure and some kind of hierarchy. The Camorra was never a coherent whole or a centralised organization. Instead, it has always been a loose confederation of different, independent groups or families. Each group was bound around kinship ties and controlled economic activities, which took place in its particular territory. Each family clan took care of its own business, protected its territory, and sometimes tried to expand at another group’s expense.

Although not centralized, there was some minimal coordination, to avoid mutual interference. This illegal organisation, which now have expanded, formalised and spread its influence outside the boundaries of the region, represents an ungovernable organism yet could be considered the main from of welfare, operating in the political voids left by regional and governmental policies.

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10. Containers trasnportation

by Cosco one of the largest goods transport companies.

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Such organisation, particularly the “branch” operating in the province of Naples, found the economical and political isolation of the Port the best spot for their intense activity of illegal traffic, tax exemption and exploitation of human capital. The role of the Camorra in the port found an easy way in through the relations between the Chinese and Italian markets. There were established just after the end of the War through the illegal contraband of cigarettes. Contextually speaking the presence of the ancient tradition of the “Magliari ”, in the city of Naples, involved in the market of counterfeit clothes, represented another premises for the enforcement of this business relationship. 19In the past ten years the data on the illegal traffic in the hands of this join business amid the Chinese and the Italian Mafia has grown exponentially, so much to become the subject of a book.

“Everything that exists passes through here, through the port of Naples. There's not a product, fabric, piece of plastic, toy, hammer, shoe, screwdriver, bolt, video game, jacket, pair of pants, drill, or watch that doesn't come through the port. The port of Naples is an open wound. This is the end point for the interminable voyage that merchandise makes.

Ships enter the gulf and come to the dock like babies to the breast, except that they're here to be milked, not fed. The port of Naples is the hole in the earth out of which what's made in China comes. The Far East, as reporters still like to call it. Far. Extremely far.

Practically, unimaginable. Closing my eyes, I see kimonos, Marco Polo's beard, Bruce Lee kicking in mid-air. But in fact this East is more closely linked to the port of Naples than to any other place. There's nothing far about the East here. It should be called the extremely near East, the least East. Everything made in China is poured out here. Like a bucket of water dumped into a hole in the sand. The water eats the sand, and the hole gets bigger and deeper “ .20 Today the Port of Naples handles almost the 70% of the textile quantity 19 The Magliari was a group of people dealing in couterfeit clothes and fabric.

20 Roberto Saviano, Chapter 1 of Gomorrah, Naples 2008 21 Donald Dekieffer, “Underground Economies and Illegal Imports” Oxford University Press, 2010 22 Santa Lucia Luntana, song

by E.A. Mario, 1914

imports from china but only the 20% of the value. As if somehow this architectural appendix of the city is able to work as a filter of wealth in relation to it’s surrounding. Coherently to a study carried out by the Italian Custom Agency, the merchandise unloaded in Naples is almost exclusively Chinese and reaches 1.6 million tons every year. This data are only relevant to the products, which cross the Port of Naples and are legally registered; in fact at least another million of tons, crosses the Port “without almost leaving a trace”.

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It was estimated that the, 60% of the goods arriving in Naples escape official customs inspection, 20% of the bills of entry go unchecked, and fifty thousand shipments are contraband, 99 % of them from China — all for an estimated 200 million euros in evaded taxes each semester. In this panorama the port resembles a black hole, where the dimension of time and space are altered in relation to the city. Inaccessible and uncontrollable for the most, this traffic happens extremely quickly, so the goods that arrive in the port are almost systematically spread all around the Italian territory and beyond. The same merchandise could even reach cities like Bonn or Munich in a couple of days. “ Naples is important primarily because the port is effectively controlled by the Camorra.

All manners of goods, both legal and illegal enter and leave the EU through here. The city of Naples is not known as hotbed diversion of companies but grey markets goods are routinely shipped through here because of ship convenience and tax control” 21 Paradoxically the Camorra acts on a territorial scale. It is therefore essential to understand that the mistakes produced by the centralized government from the Unification of Italy until today, have affected both economically and politically the Coast of Naples and its port. The lack of a strategy infrastructure able to support the distribution of wealth of such a potential source, generated the entry of illegal actors, able to infiltrates in the gaps left untouched. Ironically, after the Bourbon Monarchy, the Camorra could still be considered one of the main actors able to intervene through a strategic territorial and urban scale. Its ramification, in fact, reach a spectrum of different sectors, including not only the traffic on the port but also the speculation in the construction industry and the illegal traffic of waste, leaving a tangible and concrete trace of it on the Campania territory beyond Naples. By being entangled with the regional administration the virus of the illegal traffic it’s hard to annihilate and the port is perceived by the Neapolitans, as a form cancer slowly deteriorating and detaching from the urban. If on the one side the presence of the Camorra on the port represents for the most part still a taboo, often the Port hold a social value which echoes in the heads of the most and produce a generalised sense of nostalgia.

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2.3 The Social Role of The Port The Port doesn’t just represent and extraneous body on both an economical and political level in respect its citizens. The port of Naples holds meanings and memories, which echoes in the heads of those who still look at it from far away. There are a series of historical moments, which helped create a collective image to the Port; that could be identifiable symbolically in two concepts: the port as “departure”, and the port as a “corridor”. It happens often when asking to an old man in Naples to hear a story on the Port, to get a song as an answer: " They leave the ship for very distant lands ... Sing on board: Neapolitans they are! They sing while the gulf already disappears and the moon in the sea a little of Naples the shows Saint Lucia! Away from you how melancholy! It tours the world you go to seek his fortune ... but, when the moon comes far from Naples you cannot stand! And they sound! But hands tremble on the strings ... many memories, alas, many memories... And the heart does not heal even with songs: hearing voices and sounds, She starts crying who wants to return ... Saint Lucia, ............ Saint Lucia, you have just a little bit of sea ... but further away you are, You look more beautiful ... And the song of the Sirens still weaving networks The heart is not to riches: if he was born in Naples he wants also to die there! Saint Lucia!”22 At the beginning of the century, few years after the Unification of Italy, one of the strongest effects of the lost role of the capital, was a large emigration from the Sothern regions. Coming from different parts of the southern peninsula, a large amount of people arrived in the port of Naples to depart from the country. The port of Naples became, for more than ten years, the stage of one of the most painful episodes in the history of Italy. More than 100.000 people between the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX left the country for good, with the intention of finding their fortune somewhere else. The largest emigration flows interested the American continent, with a large percentage of people directing towards New England and Brazil. At the time the Port had one of the large tonnage of boats but the least traffic of goods. Although nothing could suggest a comparison between the emigration happening at the beginning of the 1900’s and the present condition; it is still striking today how much the port is characterized n represents more units than the actual units of goods.

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11. Neapolitan Emigrants waiting to leave from the Port of Naples.

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In this light the port could still be seen as an open wound, where the traumatic historical events took place and left a profound trace. The port wasn’t just the place of departure but for few years was the place of arrival.

At the end of the Second World War, Naples was the most bombed city in the Italian peninsula and the Port of Naples represented the only safe access for the Allies to penetrate into the Italian territory to allow the liberation from the Fascist political control. In this light the words of the writer Curzio Malaparte helps the understanding of how the port was intended as a corridor opening up to a condition of extreme poverty, as Naples presented itself to the world at the time. “ We were cleaned, washed, well fed, Jack and I, in the midst of terrible Neapolitan mob squalid, dirty, hungry, dressed in rags, that crowds of soldiers liberating armies, composed of all the races of the earth, jostled and insulted in all languages and in all dialects of the world. The honor of being released was first allotted among all the peoples of Europe, the people of Naples: and to celebrate a well deserved reward, my poor Neapolitans, after three years of famine, epidemics, of fierce bombing, had accepted with good grace, for love of country, the coveted and envied the glory of playing the part of a conquered people, to sing, to clap, jump for joy among the ruins of their homes, waving foreign flags up a day before the enemy, and throw flowers on the winners from the windows.” 23 Entering in the city through the remote and narrows roads of the Bassi, the poorest neighborhoods coming up to the port, the American soldiers were often even entering in the life of the inhabitants. As the writer pictured in one of the crudest passages of the book “La Pelle”(The Skin) where he described a rape made by an American soldier. In this passage, I believe is concentrated the essence of the history of Naples, and more generally of all the territory.

A land, which for centuries has been dominated and exploited, but never really, understood. A port which was often used an abused but never really questioned in its role, in relation to its citizens and its urbanity. This failure in understanding the potential of this Gulf, is intrinsically caused by the misunderstanding of its relationship with the countryside.

23 Curzio Malaparte,” La Pelle” ( The Skin) , Naples 1949

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12. Passengers Ferries

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The Port as a Filter 3.1 Urbanisation of the Gulf From the birth of the port of Naples as the city in the Greek times, history has shown how the architecture of the territory, indifferent of the dualism of Coast and Inland, has failed in producing a urban strategy where these two entities are one part of the other. The economical, social and political condition of the Port of Naples has shown how much its condition of an isolated organism represents a filter of wealth between land and sea.

According to the latest survey of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Naples, the port holds the 12th place in Italy for the transport of goods, on the other hand the passengers transportation it is much more relevant for the economy of the region contributing to the national economy with the 5.8%. Within this value almost the 90% includes the transport of passengers, the tourism and all the activities in relation to accommodation, food and wellbeing. In this picture, the transport and relocation of goods is therefore a marginal part, from which, as shown, a wealthy criminal fringe, also benefit from. This data is the tangible proof of a tendency, which has marked the historical development of Naples. The port has been the stage of many actors, mainly letting through colonists, invaders, allies, and tourists.

In the European imaginary the Gulf of Naples hold a privileged position.

The beautiful island of Capri, Procida and Ischia disseminated in the Bay shines as diamonds in the blue sea, mild and beautiful and almost for the entire year they are prepared to increase their density every time the sun shines. The spectacle of the Vesuvius is better enjoyed from it, from the right distance that a boat could allow, not too close to have a tactile perception of the city of Naples, not too far to pretend it isn’t real. The port in this 24Ildelfons Cerdà :"Teoría General de la Urbanización ("General Theory of Urbanization", Madrid, 1867

panorama, is the filter, the retaining wall, a no man lands between Naples

25 Saint-Simonianism was a French political and social movement of the first half of the 19th century, inspired by the ideas of Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon (1760–1825).

conceptualization of the term, the stagnation in the Port of Naples makes it

and its tourists, too dangerous to cross but large enough to be perceived as a boundary. Rather ascribing to the list of the non-places. Despite the newly the non-place par excellence. The passengers boarding and unloading from the large cruise boats of the l MSC or Costa Crociere companies rarely stop in Naples, and most of the time they only touch the ground of the Molo Naples is not the Bay

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Beverello where they could be directed to the ticket office and board on a different ferry. To this number must be added the multitude of wealthy people who prefer to keep a distance from the city, browsing the spectacle of the coast from far away or even giving their backs to the entirety, enjoying the sun on an expensive yacht. In this light the Mediterranean Sea around the Gulf of Naples has probably became one of the most densely crossed area of the Peninsula, crossed an inhabited by large portion of humanity in search of refuge from the busy lifestyle.Similarly to the Roman time, this portion of earth is exploited for this land and enjoyed for its sea. To this extend the Gulf has experienced a form of urbanisation, since it could be clearly intended as a new city. As Cerdà, the creator of the concept has defined from his early narrations of this space, romanticized as a “vast swirling mare-magnum of persons, of things, of interests of every sort”. The arrival of the biggest cruise ship in the Mediterranean in Naples is the symbol of this tendency. To give it scale the ship could contain more than 6000 passengers, which are reversed on the dock every summer. The two cruise ships twin largest in the world ( and Oasys Allureof the Seas ) are 362 meters long , weighs 225,300 tons ( the equivalent of 9,000 tanks ) and can accommodate 6,296 passengers - in addition to the 2,384 crew members - for a total of 8,680 people. A cruise ship contains 3,000 people of average size and has a weight equivalent to 21,200 double decker buses. These ships, almost small cities, disseminated in the vastity of the sea are part of and protagonist of the urbanisation of the sea, which clearly was envisoned at the beginning of the century already, through the first experiment of extended urbanisation.

It is crucial to say that the economic impact of tourism represent a consistent proportion of the wealth of the region. However the misalignment between the economic condition of the sea and the one on the land it’s stricking. The three twin islands are economically unaccesible, and the price of property can reach the value of the most expensive houses in London. In this paradigmatic condition tourists and inhabitant travel on paraller routes, indifferent to each other and almost extraneous.In this situation it is crucial to question how a progressive re-appropriation of the port could be achieved by its inhabitants.

Could an extended maritimization of Naples provide a solution in rethinking the port and it’s relationship with the city?

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3.2 Maritimization of Naples The coastal province of Naples it is one of the most densely populated area of the Italian peninsula, and probably one of the most in the Mediterranean.

To this respect it is quite interesting to note how the coastal line and the port, works simultaneously as both a filter of wealth and a social filter. Separating visitors from inhabitants, wealth from poverty it is probably the most evident boundary between land and sea. By understanding the dimension of land and sea could help the rethinking the role of the port both architecturally and socially.Both the Gulf and Naples are invaded by a multitude of people, crossing their territory, and eventually of goods and traffic. Both land and sea are subject to jurisdiction, laws and international political control. They do share, therefore a series of traits in common, more than in any other period of time. As for the concept of urbanisation, equally for maritimization, studies were already carried out since the sixteen-century.

In this respect I believe that our contemporary architectural sensibility should grasp from this reflection a new way of thinking the territory. In the specific context of the Gulf of Naples, one shouldn’t forget the larger picture, of the enclosed Mediterranean basin.In the “Le Systeme de la Mediterraneè “, the Saint Simonian, Michel Chevalier, published, in 1832 his theory, which was based on the universal association of the element of the territory and in his vision of unification between the people of Europe and the Orient.25 This connection would have been possible through the use of the territorial manmade features of banks, rails canals that could practically connect the people of the Mediterranean to the people of the Oceans. The most interesting concept of rèseau, which he theorized as a network, is at the base of this visionary geopolitical notion of the earth: a territory without boundaries. In his point of view such network could naturally undermines the territorial geographies, boundaries and political excesses. In this Unified Mediterranean, the regions were not seen as competing territories but rather as “a series of great gulfs, each of which is the entrance to a vast country on the sea”. The type of order envisioned by Chevalier could create a kind of “scalelesness”, where a series of coordinates could apply on different cities/ territory/ seas.

In this light the Gulf and Naples could be the stage, which finally tests a Naples is not the Bay

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12. Island of Capri

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In this light the Gulf and Naples could be the stage, which finally tests a concept of rèseau or “scalelesness” of territory. Finally bridging land and sea through a possible Unitarian architectural strategy, which could see in the port the starting point. Without falling into a sterile utopian idea of unification, land and sea could finally just be conceived as two faces of the same coin where architecture could possibly intervene, using the port as the main entry point by destructing its role as a wall and a boundary. The Port of Naples gives the opportunity to rethink the two elements in the light of finally finding a compromise between coast and countryside.

3.3 Naples as the Portal of the Mediterranean Sea The port of Naples has been the subject, and still is, of a series of architectural competitions, which were promoted by the government to allow the construction of a new façade for the city. In this scenario all the concurrents had the possibility to completely rethink the logistics of the Port and envision more functional way to allow the circulation of the multitude of passengers. The economic stagnation of the southern regions of Italy, still paying the price of the 2008 recession, have determined the interruption of the construction phase of the winning project of the 2004 competition

by M.Euvè.26 Most of the proposals for the Port of Naples have actually proposed to rationalize the industrial facilities of the Port, therefore believing that this apparatus could survive sharing the same area with the more modernised service facilities.The mistakes provoked by the industrialization in the post-war period have proved the inability to understand the port as an economic propulsion for Naples, moreover the situation of the selected context is strongly penalised by the large square meters occupied by the containerization and the storage of goods. As the data previously analysed, Naples benefits more from an economy based on services than on the transport of goods. Moreover the almost complete control of the traffic in 26The architect M.Euvè won the competition in 2003 for the requalification of the port and its interconnection with the city of Naples.The project cost( already of 80 ml) increased in the second phase and it is currently stalled since 2005.

the hands of criminal organisation, have created the conditions for thinking the port as a virus to destruct.

In this respect I do believe that a credible solution to bridge port and city would be the complete tertiarization of the entire coastline of Naples.

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The facts have shown that the Southern part of the peninsula should be strongly pushed towards the direction of a Blue economy, allowing for an economic hub, centred on the sea. This line of action could be considered coherent to the fact that Naples has become, since 2013, the first port of Italy for large numbers of passengers, therefore the strengthening of the service economy would produce a much higher profit rather than relying on an economy of traffic which intends the port as merely infrastructure. In this respect the example of Marseilles represent an interesting example to analyse in comparison with Naples. In Marseilles the project Euromèditerranèe saw the urban regeneration of the area through the involvement of the community in diversified actions and a process that questioned and carefully assessed possible scenarios of strategic development, to define and implement a common project to bridge the gap between the city and the sea. With the objective of justifying and supporting a strategy to reconvert the port waterfront and to build a technological hub complete with the university, research laboratories and advanced tertiary activities, the city sustains the presence of abandoned port spaces and rundown warehouses to be renovated, in total contrast with the opinion of the Autonomous Port; in the debate between city and port the community of Marseilles remains attached to the idea of a port city where the port blends with the city center and the suburban area with indefinite limits. The Euroméditerranée project represents a great opportunity for regenerating and ‘stitching together’ a strategic bond between port space and public space along the waterfront, and for the ambition to create a “coexistence” between an active port and an inhabited city preserving its historic and cultural resources and its identity as a port. The planning process, divided into a series of public or privatebased initiatives, concerned several different regional areas, each of which acquired a specific role within the overall vision: the new advanced tertiary hub at the Joliette, the office district and multi- modal hub at Saint-Charles Porte d’Aix, the cultural complex of Belle-de-Mai, the Cité de la Mediterranée with the museum and the training center, the hub dedicated to the sea, the new maritime station, the tourist and cultural structures, the businesses and offices, the green spaces and the public spaces.

The projects of Euromediterranee had the objective of re-launching Marseilles as the economic capital of Southern France, by utilizing the port Naples is not the Bay

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The facts have shown that the Southern part of the peninsula should be as a hub for culture and technology. In this respect the condition of Naples seems ideal to rethink the position of the port in a similar light. Without falling in the mistake of re-thinking the city as a possible capital, a project could help returning to the concept of the port as portal. Intending the port as a portal within the Mediterranean basin could allow the creation of a constellation of other cities working in the same direction; thus intending the Mediterranean region as part of a larger territory.

Conclusions Through the conflict between coast and inland the divorce between port and city in Naples has increased during time, exacerbated and brought these two entities apart. In the context of an urgent re-thinking of the structure of the port the thesis demonstrated that a new relationship between port and city should be established with the aim of healing a wound, which for most of the Neapolitans is still open.The exploitation of the Campania Felix, started with the Roman Empire, determined the beginning of a trend, which was later, adopted for all the domination, which followed.The striking beauty of the landscape, the mild climate and the fertile soil always attracted invaders, aristocrats and intellectual, in the search of wealth, detachment and inspiration. Somehow such prosperity represented also the curse for the territory.The creation of two different subjects, the merchant class and the rural class, provoked a divorce of the two elements of Coast and inland, already latent in the natural condition of the territory. In the history of the dominions, which succeeded after the fall of the Roman Empire, the awareness of such separation produced a series of urban interventions with the aim of making the maximum profit over such a favourable position.

The lost role of capital could be considered as the definite starting point for the decline of Naples as a maritime power that is why the thesis questions whether the port could be reinterpreted in a new light within the contemporary condition of the Mediterranean basin. Furthermore, relationship between water and land, here constituting symbolically two economic and social entities, has been discussed through the history of the port.

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13. Photograph by Mimmo Jodice, Naples.

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With the phenomenon of a progressive urbanisation of the sea and maritimisation of the land these two realities are today less opposite; in this respect the role of the Port of Naples could be rethought in a new light.

In considering this enclosed sea as part of a larger territory, where the scalelesness produces a strong interconnectivity, it will be possible to create a communication between water and ground. As the critical analysis on the economic, political and social role of the port has demonstrated, there is the need for this appendix of the coast as not merely infrastructural.

The destruction of the port as an infrastructure, and its transformation into a portal leading to the city, could represent a possible future proposal.

The economical misalignment between the wealth produced on the sea and the redistribution of it on the land could finally be bridges. In this sense the complete re-appropriation of the coast from its inhabitants can’t just represent an architectural and spatial success, but most importantly an economical and political sign. By strengthening the “blue economy” the enactment of the city could be allow in the perspective of making Naples one of the main hubs of culture within the Mare Nostrum; so toovercome the dictum and to be able to finally enunciate that “ Naples is the Bay”.

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