Napoli - Piazza Mercato

Napoli is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy. Its metropolitan area has a population of more than 3 million.

Founded by Greek settlers before 900 BC, Napoli was an important part of Magna Graecia and played a major role in the merging of Greek and Roman society.

Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire Napoli was shortly ruled by the Ostrogoths. Byzantine troops captured the city in 536m but after the Byzantine exarchate Ravenna fell a Duchy of Naples was created. Over centuries the Duchy´s relations to Rome or Byzanz were hard-fought. In 836 Napoli could repel a siege of Lombard troops with the help of the Saracens, what did not prevent Muhammad I Abu 'l-Abbas in the 850s loot Napoli. In the 11th century, the Duchy hired Norman mercenaries and about 1140 it came under Norman control under Roger II, then King of Sicily.

In 1228 Emperor Frederick II founded the first university in Europe here, making Napoli the intellectual centre of the kingdom. The conflict between the House of Hohenstaufen and the Papacy led in 1266 to Pope Innocent IV crowning the Angevin duke Charles I King of Sicily. Charles officially moved the capital from Palermo to Napoli.

In 1282 after the "Sicilian Vespers", a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily against the rule of King Charles I, the Kingdom of Sicily was divided into two. The Angevin Kingdom of Naples included the southern part of the Italian peninsula, while the island of Sicily became the Aragonese Kingdom of Sicily.

By the 17th century, Naples had become Europe's second-largest city – second only to Paris – with around 250000 inhabitants.

Executions were carried out on this square from 1268 to 1800. The first to be beheaded here on October 29, 1268 was 14-year-old Konrad III. (a.k.a. "Conrad the Boy", a.k.a. "Conradin"), the last direct heir to the House of Hohenstaufen.

After assuming the title of King of Jerusalem and Sicily, Conradin took possession of the Duchy of Swabia in 1262. The Guelphs urged him to take up arms against Manfred, who had been crowned King of Sicily in 1258 due to a false rumor of Conradin's death.

In 1266 Charles I of Anjou, appointed by the new Pope Clement IV, defeated and killed Manfred near Benevento and conquered southern Italy. Envoys from the Ghibelline cities urged Conradin to come and liberate Italy. Conradin mortgaged his lands, crossed the Alps, and issued a manifesto in Verona setting out his claim to Sicily.

His supporters, including Prince Henry of Castile, proclaimed him King of Sicily and took up arms in both northern and southern Italy. The young king was welcomed in Pavia, Pisa and Siena. In September 1267, a Spanish fleet landed in the Sicilian city of Sciacca, and most of the island rebelled against Angevin rule. The uprising spread to Calabria and Apulia. In November of the same year, the Pope excommunicated Conradin. In July 1268 Conradin entered Rome for a large and popular reception.

He then marched towards Lucera to join the Saracen troops who had been there since the time of his grandfather, Frederick II. On August 23, 1268, his multinational army of Italian, Spanish, Roman, Arab, and German troops met that of Charles at Tagliacozzo in a hilly area of central Italy. The zeal of Conradin's forces, particularly the Spanish knights, seemed at first to have secured victory. But Charles' cunning to hide the elite of his army, the veteran French knights, behind a hill resulted in Conradin's defeat.

Conradin fled the battlefield and reached Rome, went to Astura to try to sail to Sicily. Arriving at his destination, however, he was arrested and handed over to Charles, who imprisoned him with his friend Friedrich von Baden. On October 29, 1268, Conradin and Friedrich were beheaded.