Beneath Naples

Today, for the first time in 3 months, it rained in Naples. This totally scuppered my plans for a day trip to Ischia and forced me to think a little more creatively about what to do with my day.

Fortunately, I was in an ideal city for a rainy day as deep underground Naples lies a labyrinth of over 120km of tunnels. These tunnels were created by the Greeks to bring freshwater to the population of the "Nea Polis".

Naples, unlike many port towns, does not sit on a river. Instead, for a long time the freshwater demand of the population was met by diverting water from the aquifers underneath Vesuvius through a system of wells, underground aqueducts and cisterns. This resulted in an enormous network of underground tunnels, with each house in the city having access to a well from which fresh water could be collected from cisterns below.

During the Second World War, these tunnels were repurposed. As a result of its strategically located port, Naples was one of the most bombed cities during the war. To preserve the lives of its citizens, the city authorities repurposed the old system of cisterns and water tunnels into ready-made air raid shelters. The extensive network could house the entire population of the city. While during the first half of the war, living in the tunnels would usually only last for a few hours at a time, after 1943 so many buildings had been destroyed that the tunnels had started to support a permanent population.

By the end of the war, so many homes had been destroyed that hundreds of families continued to live in the tunnels, with the last ones finally being vacated in 1951. In the post-war years, the mountains of debris left by the bombing campaign needed to be disposed of, and so the easiest way to clear it all was to throw the debris down into the tunnels. This included, amongst other unwanted items, statues erected in honour of Fascist Party leaders.

By the 1970s, the tunnels were completely full. Today, the debris has started to be disposed of, with 15% of the 120km of tunnels now cleared.Leggi altro