As its name implies, this ancient breed comes from Naples in Italy. Descended from the legendary wardogs of the Assyrians and Roman arena fighters, the Mastino Napoletano is believed by some to be the legendary dog of Alexander the Great. Seeing how the old Molossers that Alexander took with him on his war campaigns were longhaired, mountain type dogs, like the breeds of Macedonia and Greece, such as the Sarplaninac, Molossos tis Epirou, as well as his own famous wardog Skilos tou Alexandrou, it is more likely that these dogs came into contact with Roman mastiffs and from then on went through generations of crossings and inbreeding, severely altering the appearance of the early Neos. It is claimed that the Romans brought old English mastiffs from the British Isles which were supposedly introduced to the bloodlines of their arena dogs, but it should be noted that the Mastin Espanol also played an important role in the development of the dogs of Naples, as did the Spanish and Italian working bulldogs. For centuries this breed was considered to be just one of the regional types of the working Cane E Presa population of Italy, alongside the Cane Corso, Bucciriscu Calabrese, U Vucciriscu and others. The Neapolitan Mastiff finally received its name in the 1940's.
Today, the Neapolitan Mastiff looks and acts very different than it did in the past. The modern version of the breed was developed by Mario Querci in the years following WW2, when there were very few Neos left. Some outcrosses with larger Cane Corsos, English Mastiffs, Dogue De Bordeaux, St Bernards, Spanish Mastiffs and others were reportedly made to increase the number of specimens for breeding. Soon, the present-day incarnation of the Mastino Napoletano began to take shape and other breeders joined the revival efforts. The first Standard was written in 1946 and the breed was officially recognized in 1949. Since then, the Standard has been changed a few times, starting in 1965, then in 1968 and once again in 1989, following the changes in appearance within the breed.
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