Pianura, named this way because of its level ground surrounded by hills, is a volcanic hollow which stretches among the hills of the Camaldoli in the north-east, the Astroni in the south, the plane of Quarto in the west and the one of Soccavo in the south-east.

Located at an average altitude of about 160 metres above the sea-level, it can be defined for this reason a short lowland. As a matter of fact, beyond the hills which surround it, the adjoining localities are all at inferior altitudes: Soccavo, at 90 metres; Quarto, at 46; Agnano, at 3; while, in the western side, the territory of Pianura slopes gently down, from an altitude of 140 of Torre Lupara to an altitude of 80 of the country of the Pisani.

Its geographic location, situated among the ancient poleis of Kyme, Partenope-Neapolis and Dicearchia, as well as between the Etruscan Capua and the Oscan Liternum, together with the level conformation of its territory, promoted the transit, through this place, of ancient lines of communication, but it did not encourage the urbanization, which was obstructed by the woody and marshy ground, of alluvial kind on the surface, because of the rain which came down from the Camaldoli and dragged mud.

Some Greek inscriptions and coins found in its territory let us suppose that Pianura was inhabited during the age of the Roman Republic by nuclei of Greek speaking people, probably belonging to the city of Partenope-Neapolis.

Actually Pianura had always been in the Neapolitan orbit till the fall of the Roman Impire, when, with the coming of the Longobards in  Capua and Benevento, it had been contended for a long time between them and the Duchy of Naples.

The first time that the name Pianura appeared in the official documents dates back to the year 786, when the Longobard prince of Salerno, Arechi II, already duke of Benevento, gave the territory of Pianura to the Neapolitan church of St. Gennaro ad Corpus (before called St. Gennaro Extramoenia), where it had been transported from Pozzuoli the body of the martyr: “Sub quoque Autistite Beneventanus Princeps inter multa alia obtulit in Ecclesia Januarii per praecepti feriem locum, qui Planuria nominatur, cum omnibus rebus…”

Almost uninhabited till about the year one thousand, Pianura remained deserted until the first half of the XIII century, when, with the exploiting of the caves of piperno, it began to be populated and they were practised agriculture and royal hunting. So it raised Casal Planuriae.

During the XVI century, because of the phenomenon of the brigandage, also in Pianura, for defence reasons, they were built some houses-towers, such as Torre Poerio and Torre Lupara, but they were little use. Brigandage and malaria decimated its population. With the “Reform of the Casali” made by Ferdinand the Catholic, Pianura became property of the nobles too.

The eruption of Monte Nuovo in 1538 probably made many inhabitants of Pozzuoli come to this place.

In 1620 the bishop of Pozzuoli Mongiojo Galatino gave to the parish of Pianura the relics of St. Giorgio Martyr.

In 1670 Pianura was part of the XXXVII Casali of Naples and enjoyed the royal jurisdiction. From 1678 to the abolition of the feudality during the French period, Pianura belonged to the noble family Grassi, whose palace, vulgarly called “Mulino” (Mill) , situated in corso Duca d’Aosta, has still two beautiful cenotaphs of Imperial age.

Passed under the royal government, Pianura remained an independent commune until 1926, when, with the urban reform, became a new quarter of Naples.
Its inhabitants passed from 2.270 in 1927 to about 10.000 in 1956 and about 100.000 in 2000.

THE ROAD NETWORK IN PRE-ROMAN AGE

Also in Pianura, in pre-Roman age, the road network was constituted of natural paths, possibly in elevated position, both for security and for reasons of practicability. So they were used the ridges of the hills but also the natural valleys.

The route, anyway, was rather slow and hard especially for the wagons, whose wheels sank in the mud which often covered these streets.
For these reasons, and for other ones connected to security, in territories such as the Phlegraean Fields they were privileged, in ancient times, the maritime ways to link one city to the other along the seashore.

Anyway, in Pianura the main line of communication, and also the most ancient, is the present Via Montagna Spaccata, which is still today the most important one and crosses longitudinally the lower section of the hollow, lapping the northern slopes of the hills of Pigna St. Nicola and of the Astroni.
This was a piece of Via Neapolis-Kyme-Liternum. Probably, there was also a more direct linking Neapolis-Liternum which, passing always through Pianura, went on for Quarto and Liternum.

In pre-Roman age, Pianura was certainly connected to Dicearchia, both through this street which joined in the east to what became the ancient Via Campana, and thanks to a way "per colles" which through the slopes of the Astroni and of the Cigliano went down as far as via Campana along via Cigliana.

THE ROAD NETWORK IN ROMAN AGE

In the labyrinth of the Roman streets concerning Pianura we should remember:

• Cupa di Pianura, which was the prosecution of Cupa Marzano that from Pignatiello took to the historical centre of Pianura;

• Via Sartania, which from Agnano-Astroni arrived to Tavernola and from here, passed the cross road with Via Montagna Spaccata, continued for Pianura through the present via Provinciale;

• Via Cavone degli Sbirri, which from Cappella Vecchia to Agnano went up as far as Cupa Marzano;

• the 1^ Via per Quarto, which passing through the farm St. Antonio and Case Cancello, arrived to Quarto in north direction;

• the 2^ via per Quarto, which continued for the Pisani and arrived to Quarto through the passage of Montagna Spaccata where it transited Via Campana.

prof. Alessandro GIULIANI