By the seventeenth century, Naples was the second largest city in Europe and a vital Mediterranean port. Habsburg viceroys, the Neapolitan aristocracy, the clergy and the city’s religious orders all jostled for prestige producing a building revival and a surge in artistic patronage all elevating Naples to new heights. From 1734, the Spanish House of Bourbon became Kings of Naples garlanding the city with palaces and villas. Urban renewal also formed the backdrop to the discovery of the Pompei and other ancient sites, the potential of which was not lost on an army of excited Grand Tourists and foreign diplomats. After Napoleon, the monarchy was restored with Sicily, Puglia and the rest of the mainland south fully reintegrated into the new kingdom. Though reformist in nature, the state beyond Naples was mired in plague, poverty, brigandry and rebellion and was quickly swept up and aside by revolution and the Risorgimento, the Two Sicilies becoming a part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
