Welcome to the site Napoliforme

Although the Phlegraean Fields have been inhabited since prehistoric times - important evidence of the Bronze Age can be found at Vivara - the region achieved undisputed fame in Roman times. For the Romans, the Phlegraean area offered fertile land and a prodigious wealth of thermal waters, which the 'new' Hellenistic medicine considered a miraculous remedy for many ailments, and from the 1st century BC. An unstoppable predilection began to grow, starting from the small inlet of Baiae (Baia; from Baios, Ulysses' helmsman who died in these waters), a word that in all modern languages indicates "the beautiful gulf" par excellence, and Bauli (Bacoli; from the stables that Hercules built to shelter his oxen, boalia, stolen from Spain). Luxurious villas of the Roman aristocracy and emperors' palaces stand side by side and encourage long stays in Baia, where Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Domitian and Hadrian stayed with the imperial court and where Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Pius had private homes; Agrippina, mother of the emperor Nero, lived in Bacoli and the orator Hortensius had his villa, famous for its moray eel nurseries. The colossal domes of the great baths built around the springs, rediscovered in modern times and identified as 'temples' by scholars, prove the importance of the thermal waters and together with the remains of the villas tell of the passion of the ancients for the Phlegraean Fields.Set in the splendid landscape and architectural setting of the Aragonese castle in Baia, the Campi Flegrei Archaeological Museum exhibits statues, architectural elements and objects found in Baia, Miseno and Bacoli.