Underground sights in Italy
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A
Basilica di San Giovanni
According to Roman law, Christians were not allowed to bury their dead within the city limits (which during the Roman occupation did not extend beyond Ortygia). Forced to go elsewhere, Christians conducted their burials in the outlying district of Tyche and its underground aqueducts, unused since Greek times. New tunnels were carved out and the result was a labyrinthine network of burial chambers, most of which are inaccessible except the ones underneath the Basilica di San Giovanni.
The church itself is pretty, with its skeletal rose window open to the sun. In the 17th century it served as the city's cathedral and is dedicated to the city's first bishop, St Marcian, who…
reviewed
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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
Crypt
Just north of Nuovo Duomo and down a flight of steps is the crypt, a room below the cathedral’s pulpit discovered in 1999. Its walls are completely covered with pintura a secco (‘dry painting’) dating back to the 1200s. There’s some 180 sq metres’ worth, depicting several biblical stories, including the Passion of Jesus and the Crucifixion.
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D
Ipogei di San Domenico
Before leaving the old town visit the Ipogei di San Domenico and Ipogei Sant'Agostino if you want to see some of the underground caverns that connected many parts of the city. They are both open by appointment outside of the usual hours.
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E
Ipogei Sant'Agostino
Before leaving the old town visit the Ipogei di San Domenico and Ipogei Sant'Agostino if you want to see some of the underground caverns that connected many parts of the city. They are both open by appointment outside of the usual hours.
reviewed