AVERSA

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'Aversa' is a town in the Campania region of southern Italy, about 5 kilometres north of Naples. It is the centre of an agricultural district, the ''agro aversano'', producing wine and cheese (famous for the typical buffalo mozzarella). Aversa is also the main seat of the faculties of Architecture and Engineering of the ''Seconda università degli studi di Napoli'' (Second University of Naples).

Contents

History

Famous people from Aversa

Main sights

Notes

External links

History

:''See also List of Counts of Aversa''.
Aversa, which replaced the nearby city of Atella that had been laid waste during the Gothic Wars, was the first of the Norman territories in the Mediterranean. In 1030, the site was ceded to Rainulf Drengot, a cadet of the lords of Quarrel near Alençon in Normandy; he was invested as count by Duke Sergius IV of Naples and confirmed by Emperor Conrad II. By offering a generous principle of asylum for the persecuted, Rainulf enlarged the power and importance of his little ''borgo'', which became the base from which the Normans forged a state in Sicily and Italy. The diplomacy of Robert Guiscard, who built the fortifications, led to the investiture of a bishop responsible to the Pope at Aversa, which was nominally territory of the Eastern Emperor.^[1] One of the first bishops was the Norman Guitmund (died c. 1090-95), a Benedictine monk, theologian, and opponent of Berengar of Tours.
The count of Aversa, Richard I, was one of the chief leaders in the struggle against the Papal forces which culminated in the Battle of Civitella del Fortore (1053) in Beneventan territory; even Pope Leo IX himself was captured at what turned into a rout in favour of the Normans. The astute Richard did not treat the pope as a prisoner, however, but escorted him back to Rome with full honours, a gesture that led to the conciliation of the Normans with the Church, the lifting of the ban of excommunication that had been laid upon Aversa.
After the Norman dynasty Aversa declined in importance: the Angevin kings of Naples came to Aversa mostly to hunt and hold court in the citadel, of which a few traces remain in via Roma in Aversa's historic centre. In particular Queen Joanna I chose Aversa for her preferred seat. There a group of nobles led by the pretender to the throne of Naples Charles of Durazzo. threw the prince consort Andrea I of Hungary from a window with a rope around his neck. His brother, king Louis I of Hungary, head of the house of Anjou, descended into Italy and at Aversa took his vengeance at a banquet of reconciliation, as Joanna escaped to Avignon.
The presence of the court also benefitted Aversa by the institution of the Real Casa dell'Annunziata (ca 1315) an orphanage and hospice that occupied a central place in Aversan public life.

Famous people from Aversa

★ Domenico Cimarosa

★ Niccolò Jommelli

★ Filippo Saporito

★ Carmelina Fedele, record holder for largest baby born by a healthy mother.

★ Alessandro Verde, Roman Catholic Cardinal

Main sights

Aversa, the second in historic importance of the dioceses of Campania. is the "city of a hundred churches" in its extensive historic center. Amnong its monuments:

★ The Romanesque ''Duomo'', dedicated to Saint Paul, has a spectacular ambulatory and a majestic octagonal dome. Francesco Solimena's ''Madonna of the Gonfalone''and the Quattrocento painter Angiolillo Arcuccio's ''Martyrdom of St Sebastian'' are in the Duomo. The pre-Romanesque sculpture of St.George and the Dragon is one of the few surviving free-standing sculptures of its date. An outstanding collection of Baroque liturgical silver is kept in the Treasury.

★ The Baroque ''Church of San Francesco delle Monache''.

★ The ''Ospedale Psichiatrico Santa Maria Maddalena'' founded by Joachim Murat in 1813.

★ The ''Real Casa dell'Annunziata''.

★ The Benedictine Abbey of ''San Lorenzo'', founded in the 10th century, with a fine Renaissance cloister.

★ The Church of ''Santa Maria a Piazza'', founded in the 10th century, has frescoes of the school of Giotto.

★ Other churches in the city conserve paintings by Guido da Siena, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Marco Pino da Siena, Pietro da Cortona, Pietro Negroni "il Giovane Zingaro", Giuseppe Ribera, Cornelius Smeet, Abram Vink, Teodoro d'Errico, Francesco de Mura, Massimo Stanzione, and Paolo de Majo.

Notes

1. The former seat had been at Atella (''CE''); Atella remains a titular bishopric today (Catholic-hierarchy.com).

External links

★ Mapquest - Aversa

★ ''Catholic Encyclopedia'': "Diocese of Aversa"