Via dei Tribunali (Naples)
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Via dei Tribunali is an important street in the old historic center of Naples. It was the main decumanus--that is, the main east-west street--of the ancient Greek and then Roman city of Neapolis, paralleled to the south by the lower decumanus (now Spaccanapoli and to the north by the upper decumanus (now via Anticaglia). The three decumani were (and still are) intersected by numerous north-south cross-streets called cardini, together forming the grid of the ancient city. The modern streets that overlie the ancient streets, to a great extent, follow the ancient grid.
The length of the modern Via dei Tribunali was determined by the urban expansion requirments of the Spanish starting in the early 1500s. The street runs from the church of San Pietro a Maiella and adjacent Naples Music Conservatory at the west end of the old city for about three-quarters of a mile, passing the central cross-road at via San Gregorio Armenio, then crossing voa Duomo near the Cathedral of Naples and ending at what was, until quite recently, the main Naples courthouse, from which the street draws its name, "Tribunali".
