Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino)

Neapel · Italia · Castle

Prisoners vanished without trace from the castle pit. Naples blames the crocodile Queen Giovanna is said to have kept down there.

Beneath the Angevin fortress by the harbour lie two dungeons. One was called the fossa del miglio, the millet pit, after its time as a grain store, before the most harshly sentenced were lowered into it. In his Neapolitan legends Benedetto Croce records that prisoners held down there below sea level disappeared without trace. Popular belief supplied the explanation: a crocodile was said to have swum all the way from Africa, entered through a crack in the wall and dragged the prisoners out into the water by the leg. The legend attaches to Queen Giovanna II, who by the telling had a trapdoor in her rooms and disposed of worn-out lovers the same way. In the end the beast was caught with a horse's haunch as bait and hung, embalmed, above the gate. Dumas carried the story further.

FAQ

Hvor ligger Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino)?

Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino) ligger i Neapel, Italia.