This is Castel Nuovo, meaning the New Castle. Remember Charles of Anjou, the armoured king from the palace facade. This was his. He took the kingdom, and he built himself a castle by the sea to rule it from. The white arch you see in the center was added much later. Known as the Triumphal Arch of Alfonso the Fifth of Aragon, it commemorates Alfonso the Fifth’s victorious entry into Naples after defeating the Angevins. But I have brought you here to tell you about a crocodile. The story goes that long ago, prisoners held in the castle dungeons began to vanish. Not escape. Vanish. A man would be locked in a cell at night, and by morning he was simply gone, with only a smear of blood on the stone. The guards were baffled and frightened, until one of them kept watch and saw the impossible. A crocodile, sliding in through a hidden opening below the waterline, seizing a sleeping prisoner by the leg, and dragging him out through the sea. How a crocodile came to the bay of Naples, no one could say. And here the story turns truly dark, because they say the king, once he understood, did not kill the beast. He fed it. Prisoners he wanted rid of were quietly given to the crocodile, until at last the animal was killed, stuffed, and hung above the castle gate as a warning. There is a darker branch of the legend. Joanna the Second, who ruled the kingdom of Naples in the early fifteenth century, is said to have taken handsome young lovers up into the castle, and when she tired of them, she would drop them through a hidden trapdoor, down to the waiting jaws below. So is any of it true. Here is the strange part. Some years ago, workers digging in the square just outside uncovered the skeleton of a large, unexpected animal. Believers said, there, the crocodile, proof at last. Cooler heads said it was more likely some stranded sea creature. No one has settled it, and that unsettled space is exactly where legends love to live. Before you go, one true story, and it is grim enough to need no crocodile. It was the time when King Ferdinand the First of Naples was trying to strengthen the royal power, but the powerful barons of his kingdom were unhappy. They controlled large estates, castles and private armies, and feared that the king was taking away their traditional privileges. So, they rebelled against him. The king eventually defeated the rebellion and offered the barons reconciliation. But he had another plan. He invited some of the leading rebels here to Castel Nuovo, supposedly to celebrate a wedding. The barons gathered in a hall which is now known as the Room of the Barons. Once they were inside, the king’s soldiers closed the doors and arrested them. The prisoners were then put on trial. Their lands, titles, and wealth were confiscated, and several of the leading conspirators were eventually executed. Can you believe it? In Naples, even a wedding invitation can be a weapon. If you wish to enter the castle, you’ll have to purchase a ticket. Also, its exploration can take at least an hour. When you are ready, follow the map to the Fountain of Neptune, which is a short walk away.