Campania historical timeline

Campania’s history is not a single Naples narrative. Greek ports, Oscan and Samnite communities, Roman estates, coastal duchies and inland Lombard centres developed beside one another. Naples later became the capital of a large southern kingdom, while the region around it retained strong local identities.

Chronology

1. First half of the 8th century BC — Euboean Greeks establish Pithekoussai on Ischia and found Cuma, described by the archaeological park as the first Greek colony in the western Mediterranean. Its acropolis and lower city still mark the site.
2. 421 BC — Samnite forces take Cuma. Greek and Oscan language, ritual and burial customs begin to mix visibly in the archaeological record.
3. 334 BC — Cuma becomes a Roman civitas sine suffragio. Over the following decades it is reshaped as a Roman city, while Campania becomes a favoured zone for ports, villas and agriculture.
4. AD 79 — Vesuvius buries Pompeii, Herculaneum and villas at Oplontis. Ash and pyroclastic deposits destroy the settlements but preserve streets, buildings, writing and organic material that now define the region’s archaeology.
5. 535–553 — The Gothic War reaches Cuma. The acropolis walls are strengthened as the ancient city becomes a fortified position in the struggle between Ostrogoths and Byzantines.
6. Early Middle Ages — Campania divides among Byzantine coastal duchies and Lombard inland principalities. Naples, Amalfi, Sorrento, Capua, Salerno and Benevento follow different political paths, a fragmentation still reflected in local architecture and identity.
7. 1266 — Charles of Anjou takes the kingdom and makes Naples its capital. Angevin patronage changes the city with Gothic churches and Castel Nuovo, and the capital’s pull increasingly shapes the wider region.
8. 1442 — Alfonso of Aragon conquers Naples. Aragonese rule brings a Renaissance court and reinforces the city’s Mediterranean connections; the triumphal arch at Castel Nuovo remains its clearest monument.
9. Early 16th century — The kingdom passes under Spanish Habsburg rule and is governed by viceroys. Naples expands dramatically, while new roads, quarters, fortifications and religious foundations reshape the capital and its approaches.
10. 1734 — Charles of Bourbon takes the throne of Naples. The independent Bourbon court begins a major cultural and building programme, including Capodimonte and the excavation of the Vesuvian cities.
11. 20 January 1752 — The foundation stone of the Royal Palace of Caserta is laid. Luigi Vanvitelli’s palace, park and water system become the most ambitious material expression of Bourbon government.
12. 1799 — French-backed republicans proclaim the short-lived Parthenopean Republic. Royalist forces retake Naples within months, and the reprisals leave a lasting political memory.
13. 1815 — The Congress of Vienna reunites the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with Naples as capital.
14. 7 November 1860 — Victor Emmanuel II enters Naples after Garibaldi’s campaign. The Bourbon kingdom ends and Campania enters the state that becomes the Kingdom of Italy the following year.
15. 27–30 September 1943 — Neapolitans rise against German occupation in the Four Days of Naples. Allied landings and fighting around Salerno make the region a central theatre of the Italian campaign.
16. 23 November 1980 — A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes Irpinia and a broad area of Campania and Basilicata. Destruction, landslides and failures in the first response help drive the later development of Italy’s modern Civil Protection system.
17. 1995 and 1997 — The Historic Centre of Naples enters the World Heritage List in 1995; Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata, the Amalfi Coast, Caserta and the Cilento cultural landscape follow in 1997.

What survives and how to read it

The Greek layer is clearest at Cuma, Paestum and Velia; the Roman world at Pompeii, Herculaneum, Baia and Benevento. Medieval Campania is distributed among Amalfi, Salerno, Capua, Benevento and Naples rather than concentrated in one capital. Angevin, Aragonese, Spanish and Bourbon power is most visible in Naples and Caserta. Inland towns damaged in 1980 show a different history: repaired churches, reconstructed centres and communities still negotiating the loss of older fabric.

Restoration is therefore part of the story, not a final polish. Archaeological parks continually reinterpret excavated material, volcanic and seismic risk shape conservation, and famous coastal settlements must preserve ordinary housing as well as monuments.