Hub Castel Nuovo. Un nuovo spazio urbano di connessione tra la città e il porto

In the urban landscape of Naples, Castel Nuovo is considered as a basic reference, which has maintained a central role throughout history, despite the significant transformations of the urban area where it is located. The main lines of the cultural specificity of the city, related to archaeological and historical-architectural, military and civilian issues, involve the castle, as well as the perceptive axials, which offer views of the monument from multiple points, in different ways, far and close, from the sea and from the hills. The essay explores a new urban role for Castel Nuovo as cultural hub, which allows to project the castle into the future, developing different possibilities of interpretation. Among these directions, it was chosen to work on an idea of hub able to promote real and virtual connection between Castel Nuovo and the historic port, a difficult yet fundamental link for the city. A connection that is also crucial in relation to the objective of a definition of thematic paths and innovative perception models, able to be a spread network in the contemporary historical city. It is therefore required a very significant urban innovation action in which, as it has often happened in the urban history of Naples, the apparently more stable elements like Castel Nuovo can play a dynamic role as investigated in this contribution.