Today we offer you a quiet Neapolitan walk that will allow you to reach a secluded corner of this city, even if located in a rather busy area. We are talking about the Vergiliano Park (not to be confused with the Virgilian Park of Posillipo), located near the Mergellina station, where you can park your car and, crossing Via Piedigrotta, take the entrance to this area that joins the archeology and poetry. But to better talk about the Park (accessible to us up to a certain point) we leave the floor to the website of the Ministry of Culture (https://cultura.gov.it/luogo/parco-e-tomba-di-virgilio): The small park located behind the church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta, near the railway station of Mergellina, encloses a part of the eastern slopes of the Posillipo promontory, from the Greek name Pausilypon ("break of pain") given to the splendid Roman villa that it stood on the hill to indicate the peace and quiet that existed there. The garden area hosts monuments relevant to the history of the Neapolitan area and its name originates from the attribution to the poet Publio Virgilio Marone (Virgil) (Andes, 70 BC - Brindisi, 19 BC) of the Roman tomb located there. This interpretation was officially reaffirmed with the inauguration of the park in 1930, after a substantial restoration and consolidation intervention that gave the area the appearance still observable today, full of very interesting landscape views.
At the entrance to the park, taking the avenue that climbs with several ramps along the hillside, there is an imposing aedicule placed there in 1668 by the viceroy Pietro d’Aragona, containing two inscriptions which also recall the presence of the Virgilian tomb.
Nearby, in a large niche on the wall, there is a bust of Virgil on a column, a tribute in 1931 by the students of the Ohio Academy.
At the end of the second ramp, on a clearing on the right, is the area dedicated to the tomb of Giacomo Leopardi (Recanati, 1798 - Naples, 1838), a monument that since 1939 has housed the remains of the poet, moved here from the ancient Church of San Vitale in Fuorigrotta (now disappeared), together with the tombstones now walled up on the tufaceous wall behind:
Climbing further, you reach the pitch in front of the eastern entrance of the Neapolitan Crypta, one of the oldest tunnels in the world, excavated in the Augustan age to facilitate connections between Naples and the Phlegraean Fields. Also known as the "Old Pozzuoli grotto", this tunnel was built in the Augustan age by the freedman Lucius Cocceius Aucto, architect of Agrippa and admiral of Octavian, according to Strabo (V, 4, 6) who was also the creator of Portus Iulius, of the "Grotta di Cocceio "and the Roman Crypta in Cuma. The tunnel is excavated entirely in the tuff for a length of 705 m, an original width of 4.50 m and a height of approx. 5.00 m, illuminated and ventilated by two oblique light wells
On the sides of the entrance two frescoed niches are still visible: the one on the left with a depiction of the Madonna and Child dating back to the fourteenth century, the one on the right with the face of the Almighty of uncertain dating.
Below we see the other end of the Crypta, on Via della Grotta Vecchia, rarely open to the public:
The Crypta has been closed since the end of the war, but the news is recent that the Campania Region has allocated 12 million euros to reopen it to the public. The Neapolitan Crypta will be made accessible, with 711 meters of tunnel, creating a long passage between Mergellina and Fuorigrotta. The passage will likely also be equipped with a cycle path (which means it will be accessible by wheelchair). Time will tell! Let us now return to the Vergiliano Park with the site of the M.I.C. to talk about the Tomb of Virgil, which unfortunately for us is visible only from a distance, since it can only be reached by a long staircase; however we will give you some news accompanied by photographs:
The prominent position of the funerary mausoleum that dominates the entrance on the Neapolitan side of the Crypta, certainly attests the importance of those who were buried there and this goes well with the long Neapolitan tradition that associates Virgilio Marone with the city of Naples and the cave in particular with a multiple and complex constraint. Popular tradition has no doubts about the identification: in this mausoleum lay Virgil, risen to divine protector of Naples and magical creator of the Crypta, whose remains, then, at the time of the Norman conquest, were transferred and walled up in a hidden place in Castel dell'Ovo, to prevent such a precious simulacrum from being stolen from the city, thus nullifying its protective function. The funerary mausoleum, built in opus reticulatum at the beginning of the imperial age, is of the columbarium type with a cylindrical drum on a quadrangular base, in which the square-shaped funerary cell with a barrel vault is obtained, illuminated by slits and equipped with ten niches to house the cinerary urns.
In conclusion, we have proposed a short walk but full of interesting ideas, in our opinion. And later, if you like, you can refresh yourself between Piazza Sannazaro and Mergellina and walk along a stretch of the seafront, to which we dedicated a post in July 2017 and where you will find a lot of interesting news. Enjoy your visit!