Fuorigrotta ( nap, Forerotta; ) is a western suburb 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 adm ...

, southern Italy. Covering an area of 6,2 km², it is the most populated suburb of the city (population: 76.521).

Geography

It lies beyond the

Posillipo Posillipo (; nap, Pusilleco ) is an affluent residential quarter of Naples, southern Italy, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples. From the 1st century BC the Bay of Naples witnessed the rise of villas constructed by elite Roma ...

hill and has been joined to the main body of Naples by two traffic tunnels through that hill since the early 20th century. It is the site of the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, home to the

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

team

S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli (), is an Italian professional football club based in the city of Naples ( it, Napoli, nap, Napule), Campania that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. Napoli has ...

. It is also the site of the new Monte Sant'Angelo campus of the

University of Naples The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...

Etymology and history

The suburb owes its name, meaning "outside the grotto", to its position: since Roman times, one or more tunnels have connected it with the district of Mergellina. The oldest tunnel is a Roman one, the

Crypta Neapolitana The Crypta Neapolitana (Latin for "Neapolitan crypt") is an ancient Roman road tunnel near Naples, Italy. It was built in 37 BC and is over 700 metres long. The tunnel connected Naples with the so-called Phlegrean Fields and the town of Pozz ...

, connecting Fuorigrotta with Piedigrotta. In Roman times, it connected Naples to the road that led to Pozzuoli and to area of the

Phlegrean Fields The Phlegraean Fields ( it, Campi Flegrei ; nap, Campe Flegree, from Ancient Greek 'to burn') is a large region of supervolcanic calderas situated to the west of Naples, Italy. It was declared a regional park in 2003. The area of the cal ...

. Fuorigrotta had been a rural district until the Fascist era, when the urban asset of the area was radically changed beginning in 1936, first by building Viale Augusto and by locating in the area the

Mostra d'Oltremare The Mostra d'Oltremare in Naples is one of the primary exhibition and complex in Italy and, together with the Fiera del Levante in Bari, the largest in Southern Italy. The venue covers an area of and includes buildings of considerable histor ...

(one of the most important Italian fair grounds), and then by the construction of the Santa Maria Immacolata church. During this period many streets changed their names into Roman-inspired ones: Viale Augusto, Via Giulio Cesare, Via Caio Duilio etc. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Fuorigrotta underwent intense urban expansion and became the most densely populated area of the city. Quartieri of Naples {{Campania-geo-stub