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Nola is also the title of a piano composition by Felix Arndt. Nola can also refer to New Orleans, or the album NOLA from heavy metal band Down.

Nola is a city of Campania, Italy, in the province of Naples, pleasantly situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines.

It is served by the local railway from Naples to Baiano, and is 22 miles from Naples by the main line via Cancello.

Two fairs are held in Nola, on June 14 and the November 12; and July 26 is devoted to a great festival in honour of St Paulinus, one of the early bishops of the city, who invented the church bell (campana, taking its name from Campania). The church erected by him in honour of St Felix in the 4th century is extant in part. There is a monument (restored in 1887) to Giordano Bruno, the free-thinker, who was born at Nola in 1548.

History

Ancient history

Nola, called Nuvlana on the most ancient coins, was one of the oldest cities of Campania, variously said to have been founded by the Ausones, the Chalcidians from Cumae and the Etruscans. The last-named were certainly in Nola about 560 BC. At the time when it sent assistance to Neapolis against the Roman invasion (328 BC) it was probably occupied by Oscans in alliance with the Samnites. In the Samnite War (311 BC) the town was taken by the Romans, in the Second Punic War it thrice offered defiance to Hannibal (first, second, and third Battle of Nola) and on two occasions (215 and 214) was defended by Marcellus. In the Social War it was betrayed into the hands of the Samnites, who kept possession till Marius, with whom they had sided, was defeated by Sulla, who in 80 BC subjected it with the rest of Samnium. Seven years later it was stormed by Spartacus, for which reason Augustus and Vespasian sent colonies there.

Nola, though losing much of its importance, remained a municipium with its own institutions and the use of the Oscan language. It became a Roman colony under Augustus, who died here in 14 AD.

Nola lay on the Via Popilia from Capua to Nocera and the south, and a branch road ran from it to Abella and Avellino. Mommsen (Corp. inscr. Lat. X. 142) further states that roads must have run direct from Nola to Neapolis and Pompeii, but Kiepert's map annexed to the volume does not indicate them.

Middle Ages and Modern era

In 410 AD Nola was sacked by Alaric, in 453 by Genseric and his Vandals, in 806 and again in 904 by the Saracens.

Captured by Manfred of Sicily in the 13th century, from the time of Charles I of Anjou to the mid-15th century, Nola was a feudal possession of the Orsini baronal family. The battle of Nola (1459) is famous for the clever stratagem by which John of Anjou defeated Alfonso of Aragon.

Damaged by earthquakes in the 15th and centuries, Nola lost much of its importance. The revolution of 1820 under General Pepe began at Nola.

The sculptor Giovanni Marliano was a native of the city; and some of his works are preserved in the cathedral.

Nola today

Nola today is an important town close to Naples. However, most of its territory and ecomony are well under the control of the camorra.

A major camorra's activity is the illegal treatment of urban, chemical and industrail wastes in the countryside located in the region bewteen Nola, Acerra and Marigliano. This formerly rich and green countryside is sometimes now called the "Death Triangle".

The scientific journal The Lancet Oncology published in 2004 a study by the Italian researcher Alfredo Mazza, a pysiologist at the Italian CNR (Centro Nazionale per la Ricerca): this study revealed the terrbile situation in the country\side around Marilgiano and the negative impact on the people's health. He demonstrated that the deaths by cancer are much higher than average in that region with respect the European average.

Main sights

The more conspicuous buildings are the ancient Gothic cathedral (restored in 1866, and again in 1870 after the interior was destroyed by fire), with its lofty tower, the cavalry barracks, the ex-convent of the Capuchins at a little distance from the city, and the seminary in which are preserved the famous Oscan inscription known as the Cippus Abellanus (from Abella, the modern Avella) and some Latin inscriptions relating to a treaty with Nola regarding a joint temple of Hercules.

In the days of its independence Nola issued an important series of coins, and in luxury it vied with Capua. Its territory was very fertile, and this was the principal source of its wealth. A large number of vases of Greek style were manufactured here and have been found in the neighbourhood. Their material is of pale yellow clay with shining black glaze, and they are decorated with skilfully drawn red figures. Of the ancient city, which occupied the same site as the modern town, hardly any thing is now visible, and the discoveries of the ancient street pavement have not been noted with sufficient care to enable us to recover the plan.

Numerous ruins, an amphitheatre, still recognizable, a theatre, a temple of Augustus, etc., existed in the 16th century, and were then used for building material. A few tombs of the Roman period are preserved. The neighbourhood was divided into pagi, the names of some of which are preserved to us (Pagus Agrifanus, Capriculanus, Lanitanus).

Famous people

Nola was the birthplace of Luigi Tansillo, Giovanni Merliano, whose work is well represented in the cathedral, of the physician Ambrogio Leo, and of the philosopher Nicola Antonio Stigliola.

But, above all, Nola was the hometown of the philosopher Giordano Bruno.

External links

• [Relazione della Commissione Parlamentare] (), a relation about the camorra in Campania (October 2000).
• ["The Death Triangle"] (), published on the Italian newspaper Repubblica.it (2004)

Related subjects

Quadrelle

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia.

 

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