Aversa () is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the Province of Caserta in

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

, southern Italy, about 24 km north of

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. 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 Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

of the ''Università degli studi della Campania "L. Vanvitelli"'' (Campania University "L. Vanvitelli"). With a population of 52,974 (2017), it is the second city of the province after

Caserta Caserta ( ; ) is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. An important agricultural, commercial, and industrial ''comune'' and city, Caserta is located 36 kilometres north of Naples on the edge of the Campanian p ...

Geography

Aversa is located near the city of

; it is separated by only 24 kilometres from Naples and by 26 kilometres from

, the administrative centre of the province of the same name. The municipality borders Carinaro, Casaluce, Cesa, Frignano, Giugliano in Campania, Gricignano di Aversa, Lusciano, San Marcellino, Sant'Antimo, Teverola and Trentola Ducenta. It is located in a fertile coastal plain north of Naples, thus serving as a market for agricultural products to the city. The plain on which it sits was known in ancient Roman times as the Campania Felix.

History

Prehistory

Archaeological sites excavated near Aversa have revealed human presence in the area since the Neolithic period. Some say that the founding of the ancient city took place with the Etruscans. In any case, because of endemic malaria that ravaged the region, the primitive city was abandoned.

Lower middle ages

Only a small military fortification, a castellum, still stands in the area, which is linked to a chapel in memory of the current alleged passage through Aversa by the Apostle Paul in the year 61. A.D., via the Roman road that ran towards Rome.

Aversa County

:''See also List of counts of Aversa''. The present-day 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 Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

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

Angevins

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 threw her husband

Andrew Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...

from a window with a rope around his neck. His brother, King Louis I of Hungary, head of the Capetian House of Anjou, marched 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 (about 1315) an orphanage and hospice that occupied a central place in Aversan public life.

Crown of Aragon

When Alfonso V of Aragon permanently enthroned the kingdom of Naples within the domains of the

Crown of Aragon The Crown of Aragon (, ) ;, ; ; . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona (later Principality of Catalonia) and ended as a consequence of the War of the Sp ...

, Aversa continued to maintain the privileges it had enjoyed. Soon the epidemics and subdivisions of land caused it to be relegated as a peripheral urban center of Naples.

Fifteenth century

In the fourteenth or fifteenth century the County of Aversa was taken over by a family from Valencia, the Pròixida. In fact, the palace of the Count of Almenara in Almenara (Castellón) is also known as the palace of the Count of Aversa.

Demographics

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Gastronomy

Aversa DOC

Italian wine, both white and sparkling, under the Aversa DOC appellation comes from this area. Grapes destined for DOC product must be harvested to a maximum yield of 14

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

with the finished wines fermented to a minimum alcohol level of 10.5% for still and 11% for the '' spumante'' style.P. Saunders ''Wine Label Language'' pg 124 Firefly Books 2004 The primary grape variety of the region is the Asprinio which must constitute at least 85% of the wines, with other local white grape varieties, such as Fiano, Trebbiano and Greco permitted to fill in the remainder.

Viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

in Aversa is unique for its use of growing the grapevines with poplar trees acting as trellises. This traditional method of trellising means that almost all harvesting is done by hand.

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. Among its monuments: *The Romanesque Duomo, dedicated to Saint Paul, has a spectacular

ambulatory The ambulatory ( 'walking place') is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th century but by the 13t ...

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 which was the oldest Judicial Psychiatric Hospital in Italy and the center of many accusations of abuse. *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 Maio. *The Historic Former Railway station (Stazione Ferrovia Napoli Piedimonte D'Alife) of a long closed 1913 railway *The Historic Aragonese Castle which now houses the Italian Penitentiary Police (Italy's Correction Officers) training facility

Transportation

Aversa railway station is a major station on the Rome–Formia–Naples railway. Most of the traffic is operated by Trenitalia, although some trains run under the aegis of Italo Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori and EAV. Aversa is served by a suburban train, on the Naples–Aversa railway, that connects its stations ( Aversa Centro and Aversa Ippodromo) with Piscinola, northern Naples, on the Line 1 of Naples Metro. The nearest airport is that of Napoli-Capodichino, away. Aversa is connected to the A1 Motorway by the SP 335-VI Provincial Road (former SS 265 State Road) and the SS 7 bis. Public bus transport is responsibility of the CTP (Compagnia Trasporti Pubblici Napoli), which serves Aversa with several motorbus routes and one trolleybus route.

Sport

The local football club is the Aversa Normanna, founded in 1925, and its home ground is the Augusto Bisceglia Stadium.

Notable people

* Vincenzo Caianiello, jurist * Domenico Cimarosa, opera composer * Niccolò Jommelli, classical composer * Antonio Ruberti, politician and engineer * Lennie Tristano, jazz pianist and composer * Alessandro Verde, Roman Catholic cardinal * Caterina Balivo, Showgirl * Giovanni Di Giorgio, painter