This paper examines the issue of infrastructures in Naples between 19th and 20th centuries and explores the role of the technicians and the relationship between construction companies and public institutions in the dynamics of urban transformation. With reference to a time span going from the construction of the first Central Station (1861-67) and the assessment of the first city plan (1936-1939), the paper focuses on the two decades between 1884 and 1904, when, at the national level, Naples became an open air laboratory where projects and programs of urban infrastructures (railways, water supply and sanitation, highways, waterways and ports) were tested. In this context, new professionals - such as hygienists, health engineers and planners - and entrepreneurs animated the local debate on the issue of urban modernization and industrialization, projecting the image and the shape of the existing city onto a new metropolitan dimension
Keywords: Naples Urban history Urban infrastructures Industrial city