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is a town in the
Campania region of southern
Italy , about 12 kilometres north of
Naples . 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 and
Engineering of the ''Seconda università degli studi di Napoli'' (second university of Naples).
Aversa was the first of the
Norman territories in the Mediterranean. In
1030 , it was ceded to the
Rainulf Drengot , a cadet of the lords of
Quarrel near
Alençon in
Normandy ; 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 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 in
Beneventan Territory , even
Pope Leo IX himself was captured at what turned into a Norman rout. 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 and the investiture of a bishop at Aversa. (But "
Robert Guiscard built the fortification and had the
Bishopric of
Atella transferred here.")
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 centre. In particular Queen
Joanna I Of Naples chose Aversa for her preferred seat. There a group of nobles led by the pretender to the throne of Naples.
Charles Of Durazzo . threw the prince consort
Andrea I Of Hungary from a window with a rope around his neck. His brother, king
Louis I Of Hungary , head of the
House Of Anjou , descended 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 (ca 1315) an orphanage and hospice that occupied a central place in Aversan public life.
Norman rulers of the ''county of Aversa'':
Thereafter to Sicily.
Aversa, the second in historic importance of the dioceses of Campania. is the "city of a hundred churches" in its extensive historic center,
- The Romanesque Duomo , dedicated to Saint Paul has a spectacular Ambulatory 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
- The founded by Joachim Murat , 1813
- The
- The Benedictine , founded in the 10th century, with a fine Renaissance cloister.
- The , 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 Majo.
