Naples is a great place to check out street art and graffiti and many murals with political content, and on a larger scale can also be found in more working class areas on the outskirts of the city. Photos by Matt from Buenos Aires Street Art.
San Gennaro mural by Jorit in Piazza Crocelle ai Mannesi (photo © BA Street Art)
Centro Storico
One of the most iconic murals in the UNESCO area of Naples is this portrait of San Gennaro, the city’s patron saint, painted by Italian street artist Jorit Agoch (above) in 2015. The mural was restored by the artist in February 2025 with financial support from the city government recognising the importance of street art as an integral part the urban landscape.
Banksy’s ‘Madonna with Gun’ stencil in Centro Storico (photo © BA Street Art)
Banksy’s ‘Madonna with Gun’ stencil (above) in Piazza Gerolomini was painted in 2010 and has since been preserved with Plexiglass. It depicts the Virgin Mary with a revolver above her head in place of a halo. The artwork is mocking the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Camorra or mafia in Italy.
Sofia Loren mural by Mexican artist Maker Garcia on Via di Tribunale (photo © BA Street Art)
Sophia Loren is probably the most famous movie star from Italy and dozens of artworks dedicated to her can be found around the city. Mexican street artist Maker Garcia visited Napoli in 2023 and painted realistic portraits of Sophia Loren and Diego Maradona off Via di Tribunale.
Paste-up of Sophia Loren next to Busto di Pulcinella (photo © BA Street Art)
Dozens of artworks featuring Sophia Loren can be found around the city including this paste-up (above) next to the famous Busto di Pulcinella, that is a statue of a theatrical character and a symbol of Neapolitan identity dating from the 17th century. Locals believe that rubbing its nose brings good luck.
Tiger by Maker Garcia (photo © BA Street Art)
Maker Garcia also found time to paint this eye-catching growling Tiger that represents Mexican football club Tigres which won the league title in 2023. This artwork is located under an archway on Vico Dei Maiorani.
Paste-up by Blub reinterpreting Modigliani’s Lunia (photo © BA Street Art)
Blub is a street artist from Florence well known for his paste-ups featuring Italian masters with underwater goggles or snorkels. Blub put up several new artworks around Centro Storico on his last visit to Naples. This one above features Amedeo Modigliani’s Lunia and can be found along Via de Tribunali.
Artwork by Sapiens inspired by Vermeer (photo © BA Street Art)
Taking about street art inspired by world famous paintings, we came across this mural by Sapiens off Via San Biagio Dei Librai similar to one of Johannes Vermeer’s works.
Cartoon cats for Mare Libero at Ex Asilo Filangieri (photo © BA Street Art)
The former Asylum Filangieri which is now a cultural centre on Vico Giuseppe Maffei has given permission for street artists to decorate its walls. Cometa Kidz created this cartoon artwork featuring some stray cats and fish to support ‘Mare Libero’.
Quartieri Spagnoli
Mural by Italian street artist Blu (photo © BA Street Art)
Italian street artist Blu painted a brilliant mural in 2020 dedicated to Ugo Russo, a 15-year-old boy who was shot and killed by a policeman on 29th February 2020. It features a kid with a red cap riding a bamboo bicycle and playing football while dodging bullets plus a gold wrist watch. Russo was carrying a replica gun and accompanied by a friend while trying to rob a wrist watch from a plain clothes policeman. The teenager’s death sparked a nationwide debate about youth crime and how more needs to be done to prevent young children from poor and working-class neighbourhoods from getting involved in crime.
Boss of all dogs (photo © BA Street Art)
This paste-up by Gu-Tang Clan shows a mobster with a dog’s head holding a smoking machine gun with the message: “Capo di Tutti I cani”, meaning ‘The boss of all dogs”. The Camorra based in Naples and Campania region of Italy is one of the country’s oldest and largest organised criminal organisations with different clans led by a ‘boss’ or ‘capo’.
Portrait of Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel by Leticia Mandragora (photo © BA Street Art)
This portrait of Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel was painted by Leticia Mandragora in 2020 for Assafà Project supported by Napoli city government. Pimentel was an 18th century Italian poet, librarian, and revolutionary connected with the Neapolitan revolution.
Paste-up collage relating to women’s rights (photo © BA Street Art)
This big paste-up collage off Via San Biagio Dei Librai speaks about women’s rights. Street artist Cassandra Parla stuck up a wheat paste with the message: “Si tocchene a una tocchene a tutt’ quant” that equates to “If you touch one of us, you touch us all”. Other phrases include “malafemmina” meaning “Bad female”, “Fuck your morals” and “Women, life, freedom”.
Peppino De Filippo & Totò
Artwork by The Pencil dedicated to Peppino De Filippo on Porta Caprese Monte Calvario (photo © BA Street Art)
Around the Spanish Quarter along Porta Caprese Monte Calvario are a series of murals paying tribute to two of Italy’s most iconic comedians and actors: Totò and Peppino De Filippo. These fun and colourful murals in a cartoon and comic book style bring the duo back to life, offering passers-by a chance to recall or learn about their contribution to Italian cinema and culture. They also offer a change of theme from the hundreds of examples of Maradona street art in the district.
Artwork of Peppino De Filippo on doors (photo © BA Street Art)
A few years ago, parts of the Spanish Quarter weren’t recommended by on guided tours as they were considered dangerous but groups of tourists can be seen in large numbers stopping to take photos before stopping at a bar or restaurant for lunch or a drink. These murals by local artists like their opening, are contributing to the revitalization of the neighborhood.
Artworks featuring Peppino & Totó as Superman on Porta Caprese Monte Calvario (photo © BA Street Art)
Cartoon strip & portraits of Totò on Porta Caprese Monte Calvario (photo © BA Street Art)
A few years ago, tourists were strongly discouraged from visiting the narrow streets around Via Roma because it was considered dangerous. It’s now because a popular spot for tours with guides stopping to explain about popular culture and Italian cinema while more bars and cafes are popping up.
Rione Sanitá
Rione Sanitá is a neighbourhood known for its catacombs where Saint Gennaro and Saint Gaudioso are buried, the basilicas of Santa Maria della Sanità and San Severo, as well as the magnificent architecture of the Palacio della Spagnolo.
Mural by Tono Cruz featuring Peppino & Totó on Via Sanità (photo © BA Street Art)
In Rione Sanità, a mural by Spanish artist Tono Cruz occupies the wall of a four storey building close to Totò’s birthplace. The mural takes inspiration from a scene from the film “La Banda degli Onesti” in which Totò explains to Peppino what capitalism is.
Chain gang – mural by Nino Come (photo © BA Street Art)
Just around the corner from Tono Cruz’s mural, artist Nino Como has painted a cool artwork featuring a series of men and women in chains on the front of L’Arena Sanità social club in 2022 that has really helped transform the building’s appearance.
Mural by Jerico Cabrera at Ponte della Sanità (photo © BA Street Art)
In 2019, Jerico Cabrera painted a beautiful artwork on the lift next to Ponte della Sanità, a viaduct on Via Sanità featuring a couple embracing and a river with plants below them. It’s entitled “tieneme ca’ te tengo: that translates to “Hold me because I hold you”.
Mural by Alex Senna on Via Buongiorno in Rione Sanità (photo © BA Street Art)
Brazilian street artist Alex Senna painted a monochrome mural on the corner of Vico Buongiorno in 2017. We were told before the mural was painted, the street was an abandoned dark alleyway littered with rubbish and frequented by pickpockets. A wine bar called Sciò opened soon after and has helped transform the area while also giving permission for street artists to paint more murals there like this one (below) by Mexican artist Facte.
Mural by Facte outside Scio bar in Rione Sanità (photo © BA Street Art)
Mural by Francesco Bosoletti at Basilica Santa Maria della Sanità (photo © BA Street Art)
Argentine artist Francisco Bosoletti painted a beautiful mural on the facade of the 17th century basilica Santa Maria della Sanità in 2016. The artwork entitled “Resis ti amo” is a play on words relating to resistance and love and was sponsored by Fundazione di Comunità San Gennaro and is thought to be the first mural in Italy made on a church. As you can imagine the mural has faded and lost much of its colour but tells the story of two lovers who were chosen as a symbol of resistance to violence, disease and insults.
Materdei
Partenope mural by Francisco Bosoletti at Salita San Raffaele 38, Materdei (photo © BA Street Art)
On Salita S. Raffaele, 38 in the neighbourhood of Materdei is a mural painted by Bosoletti in 2023 entitled “Partenope”. It features a winged figure of Parthenope which is the name of a mythological siren in Homer’s Odyssey whose body is said to have been washed ashore on the site of where the city of Naples was founded.
Stazione Centrale
Mural by Jorit of Maradona, Massimo Troisi & Pino Daniele near Stazione Centrale (photo © BA Street Art)
In 2023, Jorit was commissioned to paint the tallest mural in the city located at Centro Direzionale. It features huge portraits of three icons of Naples: Argentine footballer Diego Maradona, Italian actor Massimo Troisi and singer-songwriter Pino Danielle. The giant mural can be seen from Piazza Garibaldi towering over Stazione Central, and another good vantage point to see it is looking down Via Ferrara.
Giuseppe Amed mural near Stazione Centrale (photo © BA Street Art)
Italian street artist Giuseppe Amed painted a mural in 2022 in memory of syndicate worker Antonio Prisco that was sponsored by Giosef Italy.
Graffiti piece by Cuomo near Stazione Centrale (photo © BA Street Art)
Mercato Caramanico
Mercato Caramanico is an open air market near the city ring road selling shoes, leather goods and clothes at affordable prices. Graffiti artists and street artists have painted walls around the site with some cool pieces and cartoon characters including some relating to the Wild West with cowboys and Indians. Artists featured included The Pencil, Cuomo, Nedo and Arp.
Cowboy character by Mr. Pencil (photo © BA Street Art)
Cowboys & Indians characters by Michele Nedo (photo © BA Street Art)
Graffiti piece by Cuomo featuring detective cartoon animals (photo © BA Street Art)
Skeleton artwork by Arp near Mercato Caramanico (photo © BA Street Art)
Rione Luzzatti
Rione Luzzatti Ascarelli in Poggioreale is now famous due to the novel, later turned into a television series, “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante. The neighbourhood’s history dates back to the 1950s, when the new council blocks were built to accommodate the working class of the emerging industrial area in eastern Naples.
Mural by Luis Gomez de Teran in Rione Luzzatti (photo © BA Street Art)
Assafà Project in 2019 saw Venezuelan-born street artist Luis Gomez de Teran and Fabio Perani from Turin paint two large-scale murals in the area. Luis Gomez de Teran painted this mural entitled ‘Nient’ altro importa’ or ‘Nothing else matters’.
Mural by Fabio Petani (photo © BA Street Art)
Fabio Petani’s mural (above) on this five story apartment block is called ‘Metamorfosi’ or ‘Metamorphosis’ and features different plants and flowers.
Murals in Ponticelli
Mural by Sicilian artists Giulio Rosk (photo © BA Street Art)
Ponticelli is an area on the outskirts of Naples characterised by monoblocks in huge housing complexes. Over the last five years or so, Italian street artists have been invited to paint different murals on the facades of the apartment blocks to help regenerate the area which has become to be known as Parco dei Murales. Italian TV series such as ‘Gomorra’ and ‘Sirene’ relating to the mafia and organised crime in Naples have been filmed in the area featuring some of the murals in different scenes. Artists have chosen to paint portraits of children with the objective of inspiring them to lift themselves out of poverty.
Mural by Domenico Tirino featuring 14-year-old Francesco Paolillo who died (photo © BA Street Art)
One of the most inspiring murals in the area is that depicting Francesco Paolillo as superman. Francesco was a 14-year-old boy who died in 2005 after helping a friend following an accident on an abandoned construction site in Via Carlo Miranda. An inscription underneath the mural reads: “They call heroes those who fight in a war, those who defend us every day from criminals, those who take care of us in hospitals and save our lives, and those who, like Francesco, live in forgotten neighbourhoods, where the degradation and supremacy of unconscious people lead children to succumb to dangers, Francesco hero for a day, hero for life.”
Mural by Sicilian artists Rosk & Loste (photo © BA Street Art)
Sicilian artists Rosk and Loste painted an inspiring mural on the facade of a nine story building overlooking a football pitch in Ponticelli in 2016. It feature two kids wearing light blue Argentina and Napoli shirts with the hope it will inspire kids to play sports.
Jorit mural of Ael in Ponticelli (photo © BA Street Art)
The first mural at Ponticelli was painted by Jorit in 2015. It features the face of a girl named Ael and a pile of books that represent the path to a brighter future through education.
Che & Maradona in San Giovanni a Teduccio
Jorit has painted numerous large-scale portraits of important historical figures and political leaders around the world and for that reason is probably the best known street artist from Naples. On the homepage of his website, Jorit underlines the importance of “strong social messaging” in his hyper-realistic murals. Of course, being a prominent muralist offers a position by which to influence hearts and minds through art. Therefore, it’s interesting that the subjects Jorit chooses are often complex or controversial characters who have supported communism and/or popular and nationalist movements.
‘Patria o Muerte’: Che Guevara portraits by Jorit in San Giovanni a Teduccio (photo © BA Street Art)
Two eye-catching portraits of Che Guevara tower over residents and passers-by from the facades of monoblocks in San Giovanni a Teduccio. One of which features the famous phrase in Spanish “Patria o muerte” (“Country or death”) referring to the Cuban Revolution and Fidel’s Castro’s famous speech in 1960. The Argentine known as ‘El Che’ is also a divisive figure. There are no large scale murals to be found of ‘El Che’ in Argentina for example. The few images you will see of Guevara in Buenos Aires are accompanied by the hammer and sickle which are have been adopted as the logo of the Communist Party. As depicted in Stephen Soderbergh’s two movies, was Guevara a handsome and charismatic revolutionary leader, ‘a man of the people’, who fought for the Cuban Revolution and was immortalised by Castro’s official photographer Alberto Korda? Or was he an unqualified doctor turned mercenary who analysed the entry and exit wounds of bullets to become a more ruthless killer?
Dios Umano – Maradona mural in San Giovanni a Teduccio (photo © BA Street Art)
Jorit painted a striking mural of Maradona with the phrase ‘Dios Umano’ or ‘Human God’ in San Giovanni a Teduccio in 2015. The other wall features two portraits of an autistic boy called Niccolo with the message ‘Essere Umani’ or ‘Human Beings’. Rather than depicting Maradona as the footballer, he’s casually dressed with silver neck chain and diamond earrings. Like Guevara, Maradona was also a close friend of Castro, even having a tattoo of the Cuban president on his leg. and he lived in Havana between 2000 and 2004 while trying to recover from his drug addiction. Maradona’s footballing genius is not open for debate but his cocaine addiction, erratic behaviour, drug bans, a suspended jail sentence for shooting at and injuring journalists with an air rifle, plus allegations of sexual violence and physical abuse by ex-partners and girlfriends doesn’t make him the ideal role model. The good, the bad and the ugly all in one package – is that what maybe makes Maradona such an interesting character to paint?
Murals in Barra
From 2020, Jorit has organised five large-scale murals in the Barra neighbourhood to the east of Naples, painting four of them himself. This mural (below) is a portrait of former Chile president Salvador Allende which was painted together with Chilean muralist Mono González who was stuck in Italy due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Salvador Allende painted by Jorit & Mono González (photo © BA Street Art)
Alejandro González explained what the mural was about: “At its core, it’s a tribute to the 50 years of the Popular Unity government and Allende, and today, as a result of the social uprising of October 2019, a plebiscite was held and a vote was won to change the Pinochet dictatorship’s Constitution.” Allende was leader of the Popular Socialist Party in Chile and has been described as the first Marxist to be elected president (1970-1973) in a liberal democracy in Latin America.
Mural by Chilean street artist Inti (photo © BA Street Art)
Inti is probably the best known street artist in Chile and he also travelled to Naples in 2020 to paint this stunning mural entitled ‘Polvere di Stelle’ or ‘Stardust’.
Portrait of Martin Luther King by Jorit (photo © BA Street Art)
In 2020, Jorit also painted this striking mural of Martin Luther King in Barra. It includes the phrase: “I have a dream”, referring to King’s famous speech, along with the words: “Work and dignity for Barra”. Choosing the figure of King, is no doubt meant to be a symbol of social justice and combatting racism.
Mural of Palestian boy by Jorit, Calaveras & Tukios (photo © BA Street Art)
In 2021, Jorit, Calaveras and Tukios teamed up to paint this politically charged mural. It’s called ‘La Catastrofe; or ‘The Catastrophe’ and features a key hole, a monkey guarding a key and a realistic portrait of a Palestinian boy. Tukios said about the mural: “The Palestinians still today, 70 years later, they fight for the right to return home the ‘nakba’ (catastrophe) since then has never stopped and the occupation of Palestine by the Hebrew state and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people continues, against every international treaty and human right.” Nakba Day, observed annually on May 15th, is a day of remembrance for Palestinians, marking the displacement and dispossession that occurred during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, known as the ‘Nakba’ or ‘Catastrophe’.
‘Children’s Dreams’ mural by Jorit (photo © BA Street Art)
In 2021, Jorit also painted a black and white mural in the neighbourhood featuring three sleeping kids which he has entitled ‘Sogni di Bambini’ or ‘Children’s Dreams’.
What do you think about the quality of street art in Naples? Let us know in the comments below.
All photos © Buenos Aires Street Art
