Aversa () is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' in the

Province of Caserta The Province of Caserta ( it, Provincia di Caserta) is a province in the Campania region of southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Caserta, situated about by road north of Naples. The province has an area of , and had a total population of ...

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

, southern Italy, about 24 km north of

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. It is the centre of an agricultural district, the ''Agro Aversano'', producing wine and cheese (famous for the typical buffalo

mozzarella Mozzarella (, ; nap, muzzarella ) is a southern Italian cheese traditionally made from Italian buffalo's milk by the pasta filata method. Fresh mozzarella is generally white but when seasoned it turns to a light yellow depending on the anim ...

). Aversa is also the main seat of the faculties of

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

of the ''Seconda università degli studi di Napoli'' (Second University of Naples). With a population of 52,974 (2017), it is the second city of the province after

Caserta Caserta () is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial, and industrial '' comune'' and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Ca ...

Geography

Aversa is located near the city of

; it is separated by only 24 kilometres from Naples and by 26 kilometres from

, the administrative centre of the province of the same name. The municipality borders Carinaro, Casaluce, Cesa,

Frignano Frignano is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about northwest of Naples and about southwest of Caserta. Frignano borders the following municipalities: Aversa, Casaluce, San Marcellin ...

Giugliano in Campania Giugliano in Campania , also known simply as Giugliano, is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, Italy. , it had some 124,000 inhabitants,Gricignano di Aversa Gricignano di Aversa is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about north of Naples and about southwest of Caserta Caserta () is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campani ...

, Lusciano,

San Marcellino San Marcellino ( nap, San Marciullin) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about northwest of Naples and about southwest of Caserta. San Marcellino borders the following municipalitie ...

Sant'Antimo Sant'Antimo is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 13 km north of Naples. Geography The municipality is located at 67 m above sea level and is 16 km from the ce ...

Teverola Teverola is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about north of Naples and about southwest of Caserta. Teverola borders the following municipalities: Aversa, Carinaro, Casaluce, Santa Ma ...

and Trentola Ducenta. It is located in a fertile coastal plain north of Naples, thus serving as a market for agricultural products to the city. The plain on which it sits was known in ancient Roman times as the Campania Felix.

History

Prehistory

Archaeological sites excavated near Aversa have revealed human presence in the area since the

Neolithic period The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

. Some say that the founding of the ancient city took place with the

Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...

. In any case, because of endemic malaria that ravaged the region, the primitive city was abandoned.

Lower middle ages

Only a small military fortification, a castellum, still stands in the area, which is linked to a chapel in memory of the current alleged passage through Aversa by the Apostle Paul in the year 61. A.D., via the Roman road that ran towards Rome.

Aversa County

:''See also

List of Counts of Aversa In 1030, the first Norman foothold in the Mezzogiorno was created when Sergius IV of Naples gave the town and vicinity of Aversa as a county to Ranulf. The following are the counts of Aversa: * Rainulf I 1030–1045 * Asclettin 1045 (nephew o ...

''. The present-day Aversa, which replaced the nearby city of

Atella Atella was an ancient Oscan city of Campania, located 20km directly north of Naples. Remains The ruins of the city walls, private houses, the so-called ''garden of Virgil'' and many tombs remain, on sites in the ''comuni'' of Frattaminore, Or ...

that had been laid waste during the

Gothic Wars The Gothic Wars were a long series of conflicts between the Goths and the Roman Empire between the years 249 and 554. The main wars are detailed below. Gothic War (249–253) (Goths under Cniva against the Roman Empire) The War was probably in ...

, was the first of the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

territories in the Mediterranean. In 1030, the site was ceded to

Rainulf Drengot Rainulf Drengot (also Ranulph, Ranulf, or Rannulf; died June 1045) was a Norman adventurer and mercenary in southern Italy. In 1030 he became the first count of Aversa. He was a member of the Drengot family. Early life and arrival in Italy When ...

, a cadet of the lords of Quarrel near Alençon in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

; he was invested as count by Duke

Sergius IV of Naples Sergius IV (died after 1036) was Duke of Naples from 1002 to 1036. He was one of the prime catalysts in the growth of Norman power in the Mezzogiorno in the first half of the eleventh century. He was nominally a Byzantine vassal, like his fath ...

and confirmed by

Emperor Conrad II Conrad II ( – 4 June 1039), also known as and , was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The first of a succession of four Salian emperors, who reigned for one century until 1125, Conrad ruled the kingdoms ...

. By offering a generous principle of asylum for the persecuted, Rainulf enlarged the power and importance of his little ''borgo'', which became the base from which the Normans forged a state in Sicily and Italy. The diplomacy of Robert Guiscard, who built the fortifications, led to the investiture of a bishop responsible to the Pope at Aversa, which was nominally territory of the Eastern Emperor.The former seat had been at Atella (''CE''); Atella remains a titular bishopric today
Catholic-hierarchy.com
. One of the first bishops was the Norman Guitmund (died c. 1090–95), a Benedictine monk, theologian, and opponent of

Berengar of Tours Berengar of Tours (died 6 January 1088), in Latin Berengarius Turonensis, was an 11th-century French Christian theologian and archdeacon of Angers, a scholar whose leadership of the cathedral school at Chartres set an example of intellectual in ...

. The count of Aversa,

Richard I Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...

, was one of the chief leaders in the struggle against the Papal forces which culminated in the Battle of Civitella del Fortore (1053) in Beneventan territory; even

Pope Leo IX Pope Leo IX (21 June 1002 – 19 April 1054), born Bruno von Egisheim-Dagsburg, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054. Leo IX is considered to be one of the most historically ...

himself was captured at what turned into a rout in favour of the Normans. The astute Richard did not treat the pope as a prisoner, however, but escorted him back to Rome with full honours, a gesture that led to the conciliation of the Normans with the Church, the lifting of the ban of excommunication that had been laid upon Aversa.

Angevins

After the Norman dynasty Aversa declined in importance: the Angevin kings of Naples came to Aversa mostly to hunt and hold court in the citadel, of which a few traces remain in via Roma in Aversa's historic centre. In particular Queen Joanna I chose Aversa for her preferred seat. There a group of nobles threw her husband

Andrew Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in List of countries where English is an official language, English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is freq ...

from a window with a rope around his neck. His brother,

King Louis I of Hungary Louis I, also Louis the Great ( hu, Nagy Lajos; hr, Ludovik Veliki; sk, Ľudovít Veľký) or Louis the Hungarian ( pl, Ludwik Węgierski; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. ...

, head of the

Capetian House of Anjou The Capetian House of Anjou or House of Anjou-Sicily, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct French House of Capet, part of the Capetian dynasty. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as ''Angevin'', meaning "from Anjou" ...

, marched into Italy and at Aversa took his vengeance at a banquet of reconciliation, as Joanna escaped to Avignon. The presence of the court also benefitted Aversa by the institution of the Real Casa dell'Annunziata (about 1315) an orphanage and hospice that occupied a central place in Aversan public life.

Crown of Aragon

When Alfonso V of Aragon permanently enthroned the kingdom of Naples within the domains of the

Crown of Aragon The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of ...

, Aversa continued to maintain the privileges it had enjoyed. Soon the epidemics and subdivisions of land caused it to be relegated as a peripheral urban center of Naples.

Fifteenth century

In the fourteenth or fifteenth century the County of Aversa was taken over by a family from Valencia, the Pròixida. In fact, the palace of the Count of Almenara in Almenara (Castellón) is also known as the palace of the Count of Aversa.

Demographics

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Gastronomy

Aversa DOC

Italian wine Italian wine is produced in every region of Italy. Italy is the world's largest producer of wine, with an area of under vineyard cultivation, and contributing a 2013–2017 annual average of 48.3 million hl of wine. In 2018 Italy accounted fo ...

, both white and sparkling, under the Aversa DOC appellation comes from this area. Grapes destined for DOC product must be harvested to a maximum yield of 14

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

with the finished wines

fermented Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...

to a minimum

alcohol level Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

of 10.5% for still and 11% for the ''

spumante Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne reg ...

'' style.P. Saunders ''Wine Label Language'' pg 124 Firefly Books 2004 The primary

grape variety This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Viti ...

of the region is the Asprinio which must constitute at least 85% of the wines, with other local white grape varieties, such as Fiano, Trebbiano and

Greco Greco may refer to: People * Greco (surname), a list of people with this surname * a masculine variant of Greca (given name), an Italian feminine given name * Greco Mafia clan, one of the most influential Mafia clans in Sicily and Calabria Wine ...

permitted to fill in the remainder.

Viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for '' vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of '' Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ...

in Aversa is unique for its use of growing the grapevines with

poplar trees ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The we ...

acting as trellises. This traditional method of trellising means that almost all harvesting is done by hand.

Main sights

Aversa, the second in historic importance of the dioceses of Campania, is the "city of a hundred churches" in its extensive historic center. Among its monuments: *The Romanesque

Duomo ''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as, a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. Monza Cathedral, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definition n ...

, dedicated to

Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

, has a spectacular

ambulatory The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th ...

and a majestic octagonal dome. Francesco Solimena's ''Madonna of the Gonfalone''and the Quattrocento painter Angiolillo Arcuccio's ''Martyrdom of St Sebastian'' are in the Duomo. The pre-Romanesque sculpture of St George and the Dragon is one of the few surviving free-standing sculptures of its date. An outstanding collection of Baroque liturgical silver is kept in the Treasury. *The Baroque ''Church of San Francesco delle Monache''. *The ''Ospedale Psichiatrico Santa Maria Maddalena'' founded by

Joachim Murat Joachim Murat ( , also , ; it, Gioacchino Murati; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French military commander and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the ...

in 1813 which was the oldest Judicial Psychiatric Hospital in Italy and the center of many accusations of abuse. *The ''Real Casa dell'Annunziata''. *The Benedictine Abbey of ''San Lorenzo'', founded in the 10th century, with a fine Renaissance cloister. *The Church of ''Santa Maria a Piazza'', founded in the 10th century, has frescoes of the school of

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/ Proto-Renaissance period. G ...

. *Other churches in the city conserve paintings by

Guido da Siena Guido of Siena, was an Italian painter, active during the 13th-century in Siena, and painting in an Italo-Byzantine style. Biography The name Guido is known from the large panel in the church of San Domenico, Siena of th''Virgin and Child Enth ...

Polidoro da Caravaggio Polidoro Caldara, usually known as Polidoro da Caravaggio ( – 1543) was an Italian painter of the Mannerist period, "arguably the most gifted and certainly the least conventional of Raphael's pupils", who was best known for his now-vanished pa ...

, Marco Pino da Siena, Pietro da Cortona, Pietro Negroni ''il Giovane Zingaro'', Giuseppe Ribera, Cornelius Smeet, Abram Vink,

Teodoro d'Errico Dirck Hendricksz (Amsterdam, 1544 – Amsterdam, 1618) was a Dutch-Italian painter. In Italy he was known as Teodoro d'Errico or Dirk Hendrici. He was engaged in painting mainly altarpieces and for churches in Naples from 1574 to 1606. Although bor ...

, Francesco de Mura,

Massimo Stanzione Massimo Stanzione (also called Stanzioni; 1585 – 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter, mainly active in Naples, where he and his rival Jusepe de Ribera dominated the painting scene for several decades. He was primarily a painter of altarpiece ...

, and Paolo de Maio. *The Historic Former Railway station (Stazione Ferrovia Napoli Piedimonte D'Alife) of a long closed 1913 railway *The Historic Aragonese Castle which now houses the Italian Penitentiary Police (Italy's Correction Officers) training facility

Transportation

Aversa railway station is a major station on the Rome–Formia–Naples railway. Most of the traffic is operated by

Trenitalia Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. A subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, itself owned by the Italian government, the company was established in 2000 following a European Union directive on the deregulation of rail tra ...

, although some trains run under the aegis of MetroCampania NordEst (successor to the former Ferrovia Alifana). Aversa is served by a suburban train, on the Naples–Aversa railway, that connects its stations ( Aversa Centro and Aversa Ippodromo) with

Piscinola Piscinola, or Piscinola-Marianella, is a northern suburb of Naples, Italy, with a population of ca. 20,000. It is bordered to the north by the Scampia district, north-west with the municipality of Mugnano of Naples, on the west by the Chiaiano di ...

, northern Naples, on the Line 1 of

Naples Metro The Naples Metro ( it, Metropolitana di Napoli; nap, Metrupulitana 'e Napule) is the rapid transit system serving the city of Naples, Italy. The system comprises three underground rapid transit lines ( Line 1, Line 6 and the Naples-Aversa Me ...

. The nearest airport is that of Napoli-Capodichino, away. Aversa is connected to the

A1 Motorway A1, A-1, A01 or A.1. may refer to: Education * A1, the Basic Language Certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages * Language A1, the former name for "Language A: literature", one of the IB Group 1 subjects * A1, a ...

by the SP 335-VI Provincial Road (former SS 265 State Road) and the SS 7 bis. Public bus transport is responsibility of the CTP (Compagnia Trasporti Pubblici Napoli), which serves Aversa with several

motorbus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

routes and one trolleybus route.

Sport

The local football club is the Aversa Normanna, founded in 1925, and its home ground is the Augusto Bisceglia Stadium.

Notable people

Vincenzo Caianiello Vincenzo Caianiello (2 October 1932 – 26 April 2002) was an Italian jurist, member of the Constitutional Court of Italy from October 23, 1986 to October 23, 1995. Born in Aversa, Campania, he was the president of the Constitutional Court fr ...

, jurist *

Domenico Cimarosa Domenico Cimarosa (; 17 December 1749 – 11 January 1801) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan school and of the Classical period. He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is '' Il matrimonio segreto'' (1792); most of h ...

, opera composer * Niccolò Jommelli, classical composer * Antonio Ruberti, politician and engineer *

Lennie Tristano Leonard Joseph Tristano (March 19, 1919 – November 18, 1978) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and teacher of jazz improvisation. Tristano studied for bachelor's and master's degrees in music in Chicago before moving to New Yo ...

, jazz pianist and composer *

Alessandro Verde Alessandro Verde (27 March 1865 – 29 March 1958) was an Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Early life He was born in Sant'Antimo, and educated at the Seminary of Aversa, where he wa ...

, Roman Catholic cardinal * Caterina Balivo, Showgirl

Twin towns

* Pratola Serra, Italy * Alife, Italy

References

External links

Aversa official website
* * {{Authority control Cities and towns in Campania