The reptile in the Maschio Angioino in Naples is no legend. A recent study has made it possible to analyze the DNA, and it has been determined when the animal lived and how it got here. Many stories hover about the crocodile's existence and what it was really doing in the castle.
One of them, perhaps the most famous, tells that the Aragonese king Ferrante, used a certain cell to lock up prisoners. Many of these would disappear into thin air. It is said that a crocodile entered the pit and dragged them into the sea. Another legend has it that a stuffed crocodile was offered as a votive offering by a soldier returning from Egypt during the Middle Ages to the image of Our Lady of Childbirth that was in the Palatine Chapel.
The animal's remains have been preserved for about 150 years in the storage rooms of the San Martino Museum. In 2020, thanks to a team of scholars, DNA taken from the root of a tooth was analyzed. The study showed that the legend of the ex-voto is the most likely one. The crocodile is supposed to have come from Egypt, and would have been dated to sometime between 1296 and 1419.
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