Welcome to the site Napoliforme

At Piedigrotta, in the Parco Vergiliano, is the entrance to the oldest tunnel connecting Naples and Pozzuoli. Excavated entirely from tufa rock, it is 705 metres long, 4.50 metres wide and about 5 metres high, and is evidence of great engineering technique, built by the architect Lucius Cocceio Aucto in the 1st century BC; but in the Chronicle of Partenope (mid-14th century) the construction of the cave is attributed to a spell cast by the poet Virgil, who was considered a powerful magician in the Middle Ages. Illuminated only by two oblique shafts of light, which also provide ventilation, difficult to access, dark and mysterious, the gallery is an ideal place for mysterious rituals. In the 1st century AD, orgiastic rituals dedicated to Priapus, god of fertility, were celebrated and condemned for their unbridled behaviour; between the 3rd and 4th centuries, ceremonies in honour of the sun and moon were held in the cave, now dedicated to the worship of the god Mithras (and consolidation work in the 16th century rediscovered the bas-relief depicting Mithras between the sun and the moon, now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples). Finally, with Christianity, the gallery was consecrated to Santa Maria dell'Idra and two frescoed niches are still visible on either side of the entrance: the one on the left with the Madonna dell'Idra (14th century), the one on the right with the face of the Almighty. During the equinoxes, at dawn and at dusk, the sun, in perfect alignment with the two entrances, illuminated the tunnel, which was usually plunged into darkness. The cave is still in use at the end of the 19th century and the memory of mysterious cults, both ancient and more recent, depict it as so dangerous and magical that to pass through it unharmed is considered a miracle.