Abstract

Study of medieval Naples’s urban fabric through material remains, primary documents, early cartography, and cityscapes sheds light on a central element of the city’s port: its arsenali (dockyards). This article places the royal arsenali of the Angevin period (1266-1444) in the larger urban context of the city’s port infrastructure, presenting what sources reveal about their location, history, and form. In doing so, it relates them to surviving examples of arsenali in Amalfi, Alanya, Candia, and Valencia. Understanding the infrastructures of the Angevin port of Naples positions the city as a major center of the medieval world, while also raising broader questions about the Neapolitan port’s relationship to other Mediterranean examples.