Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Subterranean City
Mysterious shrines, secret passageways, forgotten burial crypts: it might sound like the set
of an
Indiana Jones
film, but we're actually talking about what lurks beneath Naples' loud
and greasy streets. Subterranean Naples is one of the world's most thrilling urban other-
worlds: a silent, mostly undiscovered sprawl of cathedral-like cisterns, pin-sized conduits,
catacombs and ancient ruins.
Speleologists (cave specialists) estimate that about 60% of Neapolitans live and work
above this network, known in Italian as the
sottosuolo
(underground). Since the end of
WWII, some 700 cavities have been discovered, from original Greek-era grottoes to Paleo-
Christian burial chambers and royal Bourbon escape routes. According to the experts, this
is simply a prelude, with another 2 million sq metres of troglodytic treats to unfurl.
Naples' dedicated caving geeks are quick to tell you that their underworld is one of the
largest and oldest on earth. Sure, Paris might claim a catacomb or two, but its subterranean
offerings don't come close to this giant's 2500-year history.
And what a history it is: from buried martyrs and foreign invaders to wife-snatching spir-
its and drug-making mobsters. Naples' most famous saint, San Gennaro, was interred in the
Catacomba di San Gennaro in the 5th century BC. A century later, in AD 536, Belisario
and his troops caught Naples by surprise by storming the city through its ancient tunnels.
According to legend, Alfonso of Aragon used the same trick in 1442, undermining the city
walls by using an underground passageway leading into a tailor's shop and straight into
town.
Inversely, the 18th-century Bourbons had an escape route built beneath the Palazzo
Reale di Capodimonte. A century later they commissioned a tunnel to connect their central
Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace) to their barracks in Chiaia: a perfect crowd-free route for
troops or a fleeing royal family. Even the city's underworld has got in on the act. In 1992
Naples' dreaded Stolder clan was busted for running a subterranean drug lab, with escape
routes heading straight to the clan boss' pad.
From Ancient Aqueduct to Underground Tip
While strategic tunnels and sacred catacombs are important features of Naples' light-de-
prived other-world, the city's subterranean backbone is its ancient aqueduct system.
Naples' first plumbing masterpiece was built by the ancient Greek settlers, who channelled
water from the slopes of Mt Vesuvius into the city's cisterns. The cisterns themselves were
