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Piazza Mercato in Naples

Piazza Mercato in Naples

The square

Piazza del Mercato (formerly Foro Magno) and Piazza del Carmine, on which stands the Basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine Maggiore, were the scene of the most important events in Neapolitan history that saw the reaction of the population to the tax burden operated by the Spanish viceroy government.

Precursor of the Neapolitan popular revival, occurred in the 1647, was Tommaso Aniello D'Amalfi, better known as Masaniello. He lived in a house behind the square, where today there is an epigraph placed in his memory.

The structure of the Piazza

Originally the square consisted of an irregular clearing located next to the city boundary walls, until the Angevins made it a large shopping center. It also became the headquarters of the executions, including that of Corradino di Svevia in the 1268 and the Jacobins in the 1799 following the suppression of the Neapolitan Republic.

Ferdinand IV of Bourbon equipped the square with an exedra in order to better define the spaces used for commercial activities.

In the years of Achille Lauro's building speculation, the Ottieri palace (1958) which created a barrier with the nearby Piazza del Carmine.

Monuments

Visiting Piazza del Mercato you can admire:

  • the two eighteenth-century obelisks fountains
  • the church of Santa Croce and Purgatory at the Market
  • the exedra that surrounds the square
  • the church of Sant'Eligio Maggiore
  • the Basilica Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Carmine Maggiore

Information on Piazza del Mercato

How to get:





By bus
Tram 1 or 4, stop via Marina
E2, 151, via Marina - Carmine stop (towards Piazza Municipio) or Marina - Torre Aragonese stop (towards Piazza Garibaldi). From Piazza Garibaldi about 10 minutes on foot.

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