Posillipo
Encyclopedia
Posillipo is a residential quarter of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples
Gulf of Naples
The Gulf of Naples is a c. 15 km wide gulf located in the south western coast of Italy, . It opens to the west into the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered on the north by the cities of Naples and Pozzuoli, on the east by Mount Vesuvius, and on the south by the Sorrentine Peninsula and the main...
; it is called Pusilleco in the Neapolitan language
Neapolitan language
Neapolitan is the language of the city and region of Naples , and Campania. On October 14, 2008 a law by the Region of Campania stated that the Neapolitan language had to be protected....
.
Geography
The houses at water's edge all have at least small piers or landings, and there are even a few small coves with breakwaters along the way. These small harbors are the nuclei for separate, named communities such as GaiolaGaiola
Gaiola is a comune in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 80 km southwest of Turin and about 13 km southwest of Cuneo. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 477 and an area of 5.0 km²....
and Marechiaro, with the characteristic "Large rock".
History
It is mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman sources. The Greeks first named this rocky, wooded height at the western end of the Bay of Naples Pausílypon, meaning "respite from worry". There are Roman ruins at waters edge and just before the cape at the end of the Bay of Naples, one can even see the openings of the air-shafts that ventilated the tunnel that led to the residence of Vedius PollioVedius Pollio
Publius Vedius Pollio was a Roman equestrian of the 1st century BC, and a friend of the Roman emperor Augustus, who appointed him to a position of authority in the province of Asia. In later life he became known for his luxurious tastes and cruelty to his slaves – when they displeased him,...
. Those premises are partially intact upon the cliff, and include an amphitheater on a height.
The area remained largely undeveloped until a road, via Posillipo, was built between 1812-24. That road starts at sea-level at the Mergellina harbor and moves up the coast, roughly parallel to the shore.
The area has been heavily overbuilt since the end of World War II, but contains some notable historical buildings and landmarks. Among these is the Villa Rosebery
Villa Rosebery
The Villa Rosebery is one of the three official residences of the President of the Italian Republic ....
, the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
President's residence during his stays in Naples. Posillipo has given its name to Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
' waterpolo team.
Famous residents
- Posillipo is the birthplace of Franco AlfanoFranco AlfanoFranco Alfano was an Italian composer and pianist. Best known today for his opera Risurrezione and above all for having completed Puccini's opera Turandot in 1926. He had considerable success with several of his own works during his lifetime.- Biography :He was born in Posillipo, Naples...
, the Italian composer and pianist best known for completing TurandotTurandotTurandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
. - Sándor MáraiSándor MáraiSándor Márai was a Hungarian writer and journalist.-Biography:...
, the author of the EmbersEmbers (novel)Embers is a 1942 novel by the Hungarian writer Sándor Márai. Its original Hungarian title is A gyertyák csonkig égnek, which means "Candles burn until the end"...
, lived on Posillipo between 1948 and 1952; his novel "San Gennaro vére" ("Blood of San Gennaro") is set in Naples. - It may well also have been the residence of VirgilVirgilPublius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, the Roman poet of, most famously, the 'AeneidAeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
'.