## 1 Introduction  
Since historical times, the central-southern Apennines chain has generated the strongest earthquakes in Italy. The epicenters of the most energetic events located along this chain have shown a significant alignment in the northwest-southeast direction, parallel to the main direction of the Apennines (Figure 1). The city of Naples has always been exposed to strong earthquakes, and these repeatedly have hit the Southern Apennines from the 15 th century to the present (Appendix A Table A1) [1; 2; 3; 4]. Our analysis of the available earthquake catalogues and relative scientific papers shows that more than 100 earthquakes with intensities of I \(>\) III Mercalli-Cancani-Sieberg (MCS) over the felt level hit the city of Naples in the last millennium. Ten of these events far exceeded the damage threshold, with intensities of VII MCS or greater [5; 6; 7]. The strong historical earthquakes that have struck the city since the 15 th century (Figure 1) occurred in 1456 (I\({}_{0}\) = XI MCS), 1688 (I\({}_{0}\) = XI MCS), 1694 (I\({}_{0}\) = X MCS), 1702 (I\({}_{0}\) = X MCS), 1732 (I\({}_{0}\) = X-XI MCS), 1805 (I\({}_{0}\) = X MCS), 1930 (I\({}_{0}\) = X MCS), 1962 (I\({}_{0}\) = IX MCS) and 1980 (I\({}_{0}\) = X MCS) [1; 2; 3]. Moreover, the city being located between two active volcanic districts, the Somma-Vesuvio to the East, and the Campi Flegrei volcanic field to the West, has been affected also by volcano-tectonic and volcanic earthquakes [8; 9; 10] even if characterized by low/moderate magnitude and shallow hypocenters (Appendix A Table A1). Indeed, in early historical times, the most severe earthquakes to hit Naples originated from the Vesuvian area, including the 62 AD and 79 AD earthquakes [11], which had maximum intensities up to VII-VIII MCS. Naples was also affected by the seismicity related to the eruption of Vesuvio in 1631 [4; 12] and more recently by the 9 October 1999 earthquake (Md = 3.6 [13]; Mw = 3.24 [14]). Additionally, Naples suffered from the Campi Flegrei earthquakes preceding and accompanying the eruption of Monte Nuovo in 1538 [5; 15], and more recently was affected by the 4 October 1983 earthquake (M = 4.2 [3]) during the 1982-1984 bradyseismic crisis of Campi Flegrei. In this paper we present an analysis of the damages that have occurred in Naples due to the strongest earthquakes located in Campania-Molise (Southern Apennines), but we do not take into account the damages of earthquakes that occurred in Vesuvio and Campi Flegrei, for which there is not as much detailed information as for the Apennines earthquakes. The aim is mainly to highlight local seismic hazards and potential heavy damage that could threaten the historical center of Naples and its rich architectural heritage. Based on the intensity and frequency of earthquakes that have occurred in the past, the city of Naples is ranked in the second seismic category, 'average seismicity' (Deliberazione Giunta Regionale n.5447 of 2012).The structure of this paper includes an introduction describing the most relevant seismic events that have hit the Neapolitan area, the object of the study, as well as geological structure of the city, highlighting its main characteristics and historical and architectural heritage. Section 2 describes the methodology applied in the study, in which the levels of damage to prestigious monuments of the Naples area are determined and then compared with a density map detailing areas of similar damage. Section 3 illustrates in detail the most important Apennines earthquakes that have hit the city of Naples, including detailed data that are collected in the Appendix A. In Section 4 we analyze and discuss the results of our study. Section 5 outlines the conclusions of our analysis. The city of Naples is located inside the Campanian Plain, a very large tectonic depression NW-SE elongated, that originated during the extensional regime following the formation of the Southern Apennines [16; 17; 18; 19].