Underground sights in Naples
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Piscina Mirabilis
An archaeological pièce de résistance, the Piscina Mirabilis lies tucked away in a Bacoli backstreet. To access it, contact custodian Signora Filomena at No 9, who has the key to what is the world’s largest Roman cistern. Bathed in an eerie light and featuring 48 soaring pillars and a barrel-vaulted ceiling, it’s more ‘subterranean cathedral’ than ‘giant water tank’. The cistern was an Augustan-era creation, its 12,600 cu metre water supply serving the military fleet at nearby Miseno. Fresh water flowed into the cistern from the Serino river aqueduct, which was then raised up to the terrace with hydraulic engines, exiting through doors in the central nave. Engineers sti…
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B
Grotta di Seiano
At the bottom of a long, steep and exhausting descent, the Grotta di Seiano is not, in fact, a cave but a 1st-century tunnel linking the Roman Villa Pausilypon to Pozzuoli. Ventilated by three air ducts opening onto the sea, it was dug out of the tufa rock by Cocceius, the same Roman engineer who built the Crypta Neapolitana in Parco Vergiliano . When the villa's owner Publio Vedio Pollione died in 15 BC, he bequeathed his clifftop pad to friend and emperor, Augustus.
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C
Catacombe di San Gennaro
The oldest and most famous of Naples’ ancient catacombs, the Catacombe di San Gennaro, date to the 2nd century. Spread over two levels and decorated with early Christian frescoes, they contain a mix of tombs, corridors and broad vestibules held up by columns and arches. They were an important pilgrimage site in the 5th century, when St Januarius’ body was brought here.
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