Welcome to the site Napoliforme

Next to the Sybil's cavern, a second tunnel, the Roman Crypta, crosses the tufa bank on which the acropolis of Cumae stands. The 300-metre-long tunnel does not follow a straight path, but bypasses pre-existing structures and cuts across the hill, connecting the forum of the ancient city with the sea. It is one of the strategic works commissioned by Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus, and built around 37 BC. It was one of the strategic works commissioned by Octavian, the future emperor of Augustus, during the civil war that followed the death of Caesar: a road system covering the whole of the Phlegraean Fields, organised with tunnels designed by the architect Lucius Cocceius Aucto and leading from Lake Avernus to Cumae as far as Naples and Pozzuoli (in addition to the Roman Crypta, his works include the underground walkway between Avernus and Lucrino and the Crypta neapolitana linking Naples to Pozzuoli). Once the civil war was over, the Crypta became the fast link between the port area and the heart of the city and was adorned with a monumental entrance (1st century AD) decorated with four large niches with statues, now lost. With Christianity, an area of the gallery was used as a burial place and the central area was occupied by a small rock basilica of which, after the collapse of part of the roof, only a few traces now remain (the staircase on the southern wall and graffiti of some Christian symbols).