Casalnuovo di Napoli (; ) is an Italian (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region of Campania, located about northeast of Naples.
The municipality of Casalnuovo di Napoli contains the frazioni (hamlets) of: Casarea, Tavernanova, Licignano and Talona.
Casalnuovo di Napoli borders the following municipalities: Acerra, Afragola, Casoria, Pollena Trocchia, Pomigliano d'Arco, Sant'Anastasia, Volla, Somma Vesuviana .
The municipal capital stands on the ruins of Archora, one of the villages that had given rise to the neighboring city of Afragola, and also includes the suppressed municipality of Licignano di Napoli, corresponding to the Roman settlement of Licinianum. It also includes the towns of Tavernanova and Casarea, acquired in 1929 by spin-off from the municipalities of Pomigliano d'Arco and Afragola. From an ecclesiastical point of view, instead, the parishes are divided between the archdiocese of Naples (city centre and Casarea fraction), the diocese of Acerra (Licignano and Talona fraction) and the diocese of Nola (Tavernanova fraction).
The town rises on the ruins of Archora, one of the villages from which the city of Afragola originated. At the beginning of the 15th century the village was acquired by the baron Giovanni III de Alexandro, belonging to the House D'Alessandro, who lived between Terra di Lavoro and Naples. This baron was also known as the Grand Chamberlain of Calabria (1415) and Marshal of the Kingdom and then he was the Counsellor of Queen Giovanna II. In 1484, Angiolo Como was granted the ruins of the village by Ferdinando II of Aragon, and on these ruins he built a new place, which was recognized as one of the houses of the diocese of Naples with the name of Casalnuovo, since it formerly constituted a farmhouse of Naples.
With the urban reform of Gioacchino Murat, the farmhouses of Casalnuovo and Salice, together with the farmhouse of Arcopinto (which today is divided into three municipalities) and the farmhouse of Afragola, merged into the commune of Afragola. The municipal territory of Casalnuovo was enlarged by Royal Decree of 25 February 1929, n. 316[2], with the consolidation of the then municipality of Licignano di Napoli, and the addition of parts of the territory belonging to the municipalities of Afragola and Pomigliano d'Arco. During the administrative redesign wanted by fascism, Licignano, after having been part of different municipalities, became a small fraction of Casalnuovo di Napoli.
In the 1950s, due to the divestiture of some territories of San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, the hamlets of Tavernanova and Casarea were added to the municipality of Casalnuovo, while the area called Botteghelle, between Casalnuovo and Tavernanova, continued to be part of the municipality of Afragola until the 1970s. In the late 1990s, the municipality of Casalnuovo obtained an additional portion of territory which used to be part of Afragola, because of the compensatory programme on the environmental impact determined by the high-speed railway station of Afragola on the neighbouring municipalities.
Licignano was the southest village of the County of Acerra until Ferdinando de Cardenas sold it to Bartolo Rendina in 1534. The Rendina Family trasnformed the medieval farm where the town stored (and ground) the grain for the Count of Acerra into a fortified palace where they ruled the new Barony. In 1666 the Salerno Family brought the town and in 1774 Gennaro Maria Salerno hired Salvatore Lanzetta to built - from the old fortress - the new palace of the first Duchy of Licignano (completed in 1780). With the end of Feudalism in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies the Duchy was sold to Balzo of Presenzano and then to Anfora family while Carmine Lancellotti of Durazzo (Prince of Lauro and cadet branch of Ladislaus of Naples) brought the duchy palace in 1920. During the early stage of the Kingdom of Italy, Giuseppe Anfora di Licignano was the Italian ambassador in Guatemala, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay (1868âÂÂ1894). In the 19th century Licignano was an independent town, then district of Pomigliano, then a town again until it was forced to merge with Casalnuovo in 1929.
In the past, Casalnuovo di Napoli, was one of the main industrial centres of the Neapolitan hinterland, thanks to some companies which had their own factories here. Among the most important companies, there were: Moneta, Eridania, Colussi and Liquigas and Hensemberger (accumulators industry), whose factories are now almost abandoned. However, there are several small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the textile and footwear sector in town, as shown by the presence (in the former Colussi factory) of the "Polo della Moda", which represents one of the main poles of the textile industry in all the Campania region. Another very important one is the well-known men's tailoring company ISAIA, which today mainly produces men's high fashion clothes. Over the years, the company has experienced a great process of industrialization to such an extent that they began exporting their garments abroad, as a matter of fact the company not only boasts shops in Italy, but also abroad. Therefore, at the entrance of the town, on the welcome message, the city is given the title of "city of fashion" in memory of the tailors of great skill who resided here and to those ones who still work in town.
Casalnuovo has long been a part of what the Guardian has described as "The Triangle of Death," a "vast area to the north-east of Naples where the mafia had established the lucrative business of burying, dumping and burning toxic waste, in turn poisoning swathes of farmland and drinking water." These illegal activities have resulted in soaring cancer rates and calls for government reforms.
As a municipality born from different town, Casalnuovo di Napoli is split in neighborhoods and districts:
Casalnuovo di Napoli is connected with Naples through different bus and train services. The Stazione di Casalnuovo was open in 1843 as a train station on the RomeâÂÂCassinoâÂÂNaples railway while a second one is waiting to open on the new NaplesâÂÂFoggia railway. The ANM bus 169 connect Licignano with Piazza Garibaldi in Naples. In 1884 the town got the first Circumvesuvianastation (Casalnuovo) on the Napoli-Nola-Bajano railway, before the 1990s a second station (Talona) was built in Licignano, then in 1992 a third one (La Pigna) was activated that year while the last one (Salice) was opened in 2001 as an underground station.
The city has many parishes, but also chapels, the main ones: San Giacomo Apostolo il Maggiore (patron saint) and San Nicola di Bari (Patron of Licignano). In addition to the Catholic churches there are also some Christian evangelical churches and a hall of the Kingdom of Jehovah's Witnesses. The city also has a second patron: San Biagio, celebrated on February 3. Many traditions are linked to this date. In the first place the typical one of the country, also for the other patrons, to bring the statue of the saint in procession through the city. San Biagio is protector of the throat and pets. On 3 February, the faithful take the animals to the church to be blessed, or they go to the church to be blessed with holy oil. Officially, however, San Biagio is not the patron saint of the city, like San Giacomo. In fact it is called "patorno di Passaggio", the legend says that the statue of the saint, carried by a cart, was directed to Cancello and Arnone, but the cart wheel broke right in front of the village church, a testimony, for the faithful, that the saint did not want to leave the country. Since then the statue has been kept in the church where it was first sheltered.
The majority of the population is of Catholic orientation, but there are also substantial communities of Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestant, and in minimal percentage Sunni Muslims
Casalnuovo di Napoli have several elementary schools and middle schools: the ICS "Enrico De Nicola" is set in Casalnuovo (Via Roma and Via Benevento) as ICS "Ragazzi d'Europa" (Via De Curtis), the ICS "Aldo Moro" in Licignano (Via Pigna and Via Marconi) and the ICS "Raffaele Viviani" in Tavernanova (Via Zi Carlo). Outside the public school system work different private schools. The city opened the first high school early 2000's and in the early 2020s activated the first online university:
The town of Casalnuovo di Napoli held several artistic competitions inside the Pier Paolo Pasolini theatre since 2015:
The ASD Real Casalnuovo was 7th in 2023âÂÂ24 Serie D Group I, just 3 points below the Playoff zone with a team capped by Reginaldo (footballer, born 1983), a Brazilian footballer that played in Serie A with Treviso, Fiorentina, Parma and Siena
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Other important roads are Via Roma in Casalnuovo that run as parallel road of Corso Umberto and the National Railway; Via Arcora that connect Piazza Giancarlo Siani with Via San Marco in Afragola; and Viale dei Tigli in Licignano that is the home of the municipal Cinema and the main Post office