POZZUOLI

It was the emporium of the powerful Cumae,

With the accentuation of the downward bradyseism which submerged the harbour works, and with the fall of Rome (476 a.D), Puteoli became a small centre for fishermen and, during the Middle Age, the Phlegraean Fields became only a destination for short thermal stays. Just after the eruption of Monte Nuovo (1538), Pozzuoli started a slow socio-economic and urban recovery, through the work of the Spanish viceroy Pedro Alvarez de Toledo

Arriving from Naples to Pozzuoli, you can see the Church of S. Gennaro close to the Solfatara. It has been built in the place where on the 19^th of September 305 Saint Januarius (S. Gennaro) had been beheaded with his six fellow martyrs Acutius, Festus, Sossius, Proculus, Desiderius and Eutyches. After devastations and sacks, the church has been rebuilt in 1580, then enlarged and destroyed again in 1860. According to the tradition, it guards the beheading rock still soaked with the blood of the seven martyrs. On the occasion of the blood liquefaction of the ampoules kept in the Dome of Naples, the stain acquires a lively colour.

On the opposite side, you get to the entrance of the crater of the Solfatara which is a spectacular leucogeo volcano (from the name the Romans used to give to these promontories “with emerging white cliffs ”). It is a compulsory stop and it is the most interesting volcano of the area for its visible phenomena such as fumaroles and mofettes, always fascinating. It extends for 33 hectares and it is an oasis which alternates between forests and Mediterranean scrubs, and it is of great importance from a geological, faunistic and botanical point of view. The crater is 700-meter wide and it was formed four thousand years ago: since then it has kept its own characteristics. Strabo indicated it as a “Forum Vulcani”, abode of god Vulcan and the entrance to hell. Well known since ancient times even for the natural muddy places, for the treatment of sulphurous waters and for the warm stoves, it has been considered since the Middle Ages a fundamental thermal place. The travellers of the Grand Tour included it a must-see, not to be missed. Its attraction remained unchanged over time. The excursionists can observe the condensation of the vapour which is determined by putting a small flame close to a fumarole and the echo caused by a rock dropped from a small height which, in some places, suggests the feeling that there are large underground caves which are, in fact, small cavities produced from the fumarolic gas accumulated in a porous earth.

The scientific interest is the same as the touristic one: the volcanologists from all over the world keep monitoring the area very carefully. Other naturalistic peculiarities have to be remembered. In the muddy places, bacterial colonies able to live at temperatures higher than 90 degrees have been isolated. Nearby, on the walls behind the Bocca Grande, also, in 1968 a new species of insect has been reported called «Seira tongiorgii».

After three kilometers, you reach the Flavian amphitheatre, which is the third largest after the Coliseum in Rome and the one of Maria Capua Vetere, in Capua. Built in the time of Vespasian during the second half of the 1st century, with its 149,116 meters in length, the amphitheatre could hold up to 40 thousand people,  it had four main entrances and two secondary entrances and it had a complex theatrical structure composed of undergrounds, hallways, staircases, freight elevators for the lifting of the cages and a system which allowed the representation of the naumachiae (naval battles). In the north sector of the undergrounds you can see the chapel dedicated to Saint Januarius, erected in 1689. According to tradition, the Holy martyr might have been exposed in vain to the assault of the fair, before being decapitated in the church dedicated to him outside the walls of Pozzuoli.

From here you continue in the direction of Corse Trracciano and you meet the ruins of the so-called Temple of Neptune which is a thermal edifice of the 1^st century and the ruins of Diana Nymphaeum (whose circular basement and part of the upper structure are kept). If you proceeds down via Carlo Maria Rosini you arrive to the old town of Pozzuoli. The street crosses a splendid panorama and passes in front of the entrance of Rione Terra (the name derives from the medieval and nautical use to indicate with the noun “earth”  the village or the city), heart of the ancient roman Puteoli. It is a spur of tuff which, with its 33 meters above sea level, it extends out over the gulf between Nisida and Baia. Strabo already described it during the Augustan age for its vital characteristics.  It is the first urban settlement, an acropolis, a fortress, a castrum and a religious centre, it keeps evident traces of streets installation of 194 b.C. Due to the bradyseism, it has been evacuated on the 2^nd of March 1970 to then be exposed to an important renovation and valorisation. In order to visit the archaeological itinerary, you can start from the entrance hall of the square Sedile di Porta and, after a deviation to the underground placed of Migliaresi Palace, you continue on a wide decumanus flanked by tabernae, which intersects with a narrow cardo “hinge”. At the crossroads there is the entrance to the public thermal bath which, from a steep staircase, led to the upper floor. The work of pedestrianisation, still clearly visible, dates back to the Neronian period, with the creation of a portico on the left side which narrows the roadway. There are several cisterns for the collection of the rainwater, indispensable for the citadel life. The state of conservation of the urban structure, the stratification of the construction, the perfect sewage plant, the “pistrinum” with several rooms (the miller-baker’s workshop) with the grinders still intact, the small rooms (maybe a brothel or an accommodation)  are exceptional. The magnificent acropolis of Pozzuoli culminated in the Temple of Augustus, which was brought back to light after the fire of the cathedral (16^th -17^th of may 1964): it is the Capitolium of the city of republican age. At the behest of the rich merchant of Pozzuoli Lucio Calpurnio, it has been remade by the architect Lucio Cocceio Aucto during theAugustan age with beautiful Corinthian forms.  Then it has been  adapted to the christian church between the 5^th and the 6^th century and made with a baroque style under the episcopate of Martino de Leòn y Càrdenas (1634). His remains were incorporated into the construction of the Dome of Saint Proculus in the 17^th century, dedicated to the martyr Proculus when the citizens were forced to retire in the fortress in order to defend themselves from the barbaric attacks. Between the important artworks of the Dome of Pozzuoli there are also three paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi . Saint Januarius in the Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli, Saints Proculus and Nicea and the Adoration of the Magi. The Church of Our Lady of Assumption in Via Castello on the dock of Rione Terra, is small, simple and linear and it recalls the great maritime tradition of the fields: it was built in 1621 in honor of the purification of the Virgin Mary and a seaquake destroyed it in 1876.

In Pozzuoli the Romans built the most important port of the empire: a lively commercial seaport as the nearby macellum, the public market, still shows. The market is better known as Temple of Serapis due to the discovery of the Greco-Egyptian god’s statue sitting on a throne with a calathus on his head: a basket which is a symbol of abundance and fertility: it is the most peculiar monument of Pozzuoli. It has been built between the end of the 1^st century and the beginning of the 2^nd and it has been restored in Severinian age (3^rd century); it was formed by small shops set around a large courtyard surrounded by porticos and a marble floor. A majestic edifice which has been, over the years, the sign of the bradyseism of the area: on its columns we can clearly see the holes dug out of stone by the lithodomes, particular marine molluscs which find shelter in the hardest rocks piercing  them with their acid secretion, when the phenomenon has caused its sinking. Then it re-emerged.

Between the churches in Pozzuoli, others are to be mentioned. The Church of Purification in Via Marconi, constructed in 1702 with a single nave. The Church of Saint Rafael the Archangel in Via Rosini dates back to the mid-18^th century  and it has been built where a small convent was erected dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The Church of Purgatory in Rampe Tellini has been constructed by the Confraternita della Buona Morte in 1639. The Church of Saint Anthony in Via Pergolesi dates back to 1472 and Diome Carafa, duke of Maddaloni, requested it. It has been restored several times from 1540 when, on the initiative of Pedro de Toledo, it has been decorated with two high-quality founts. The Church of Vincenzo Ferrer also known as Church of Jesus and Mary and dates back to the first half of 16^th century  and it was transferred to the Dominicans until 1806 and then it was renamed in 1847: it is with a Latin cross plan with side chapels.

In Piazza della Repubblica there is the Church of Saint Mary of the Graces, the oldest parish church of Pozzuoli after the Dome’s one. Its events are linked to the bradyseism and to the eruption of Monte Nuovo in 1538, an event which has damaged the small existing church. We need to remember that as a consequence of the downward bradyseism it stayed flooded with the village, and it has been abated and rebuilt with an elegant neo-renaissance style.

From Pozzuoli you moved coasting the Lake Avernus, an evocative location par excellence between Homer and Virigil, of the ritual of the underworld: it was considered the entrance to Hades. Of volcanic origin, about 34 meters deep at the centre, in 37 b.C. the lake, on the idea of the strategist Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, during the civil war between Octavius and Sesto Pompeo, was connected to the sea via Lake Lucrino, with a wide navigable canal, in order to make a colossal arsenal, Portus Julius, nowadays mostly submerged as a result of the bradyseism. Along the eastern shore of the lake you can admire the majestic thermal hall, with a rectangular plant on the outside and a circular one on the inside, known as Temple of Apollo, of Hadrianic period, covered by a dome with a diameter of approximately 38 meters, just below the Pantheon’s one in Rome. A  majestic and stunning building.