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Stephen McCardle, age 14, of White Plains, N.Y., for his question:

DID NAPLES REALLY ONCE BELONG TO SPAIN?

Naples is the third largest city of Italy. Located at the foot of a range of low hills on the west coast of southern Italy, only Rome and Milan are larger. This large and important Italian city came under Spanish rule in 1442 and Spain held the city for most of the next 250 years.

The history of Naples is a colorful one. It starts about 600 B.C. when Greek colonists from Cumae, 14 miles to the west, founded a town near the site of present day Naples. The city at first was called Parthenope but later it was renamed Neapolis, meaning "New City." The people of Naples are still called Neapolitans.

Naples came under Roman control about 326 B.C. The city's beauty and mild climate made it a favorite resort of wealthy Romans. The poet Virgil lived in Naples for more than 20 years.

After the fall of the Roman Empire in A.D. 476, various peoples fought for control of Naples and the rest of southern Italy. The Byzantines, Franks, Lombards, Normans and Germans held the city for periods during the Middle Ages before Spain took control in 1442.

Austria took Naples away from Spain and ruled the city during the early 1700s. Then in 1734 the city became the capital of an independent country called the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. A Spanish branch of the royal Bourbon family governed this kingdom.

During the Napoleonic Wars, from 1799 to 1814, Naples had a series of French rulers, including Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte.

The Bourbons regained power in 1815 and ruled until 1860. And in 1861, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies became part of the newly formed kingdom of Italy.

Since 1861, Naples has been the capital of Campania, a political region of Italy. Today it ranks as a major manufacturing center and an important seaport.

Naples lies amid some of the most spectacular scenery in Europe. Today artists from many countries go there to paint pictures of the landscape or the people.

Mount Vesuvius, the only active volcano on the continent of Europe, rises from a plain seven miles southeast of Naples. The ruuins of the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabile are within 20 miles of the city.

The islands of Capri and Ischia, famous for their climate and scenic beauty, lie to the south across the Hay of Naples. The people of Naples impress many visitors as being livelier and more carefree than those of any other Italian city.

Music plays an important role in Neapolitan life. Such songs as "O Sole Mio," "Funiculi, Funicula" and "Santa Lucia" have made the city's music familiar in many parts of the world. At the Piedigrotta, an annual music festival, the peole hold an outdoor competition to choose the best of the new popular songs.

 

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