Welcome to the site Napoliforme

It is the smallest of the Phlegraean lakes (9 and a half hectares), a vestige of an ancient coastal lagoon, formed in a crater, largely filled in by the upheavals of the 1538 eruption, which created Monte Nuovo and revolutionised the surrounding area. The lake is composed of semi-saline water and separated from the sea by a thin area of land. It owes its name (from the Latin lucrum, gain, profit) to the very profitable aquaculture activities undertaken by the Romans in the 1st century B.C., when oysters and fish, especially sea bass, were bred in the lagoon, and the lake was celebrated by Horace, Juvenal and Martial for the cheerful and magnificent life led in the area. Testifying to the luxury holidaying on the lake are the numerous ruins of villas (here Cicero owns a famous villa called Accademia, swallowed up by the 16th century eruption, and in one of the villas Nero had his mother Agrippina assassinated) and of thermal baths, which exploited the nearby mineral springs - some still in activity - and heated by the volcanic fumaroles in the area. In 37 B.C. the double basin linking Lake Avernus and Lake Lucrino formed the Portus Julius, which housed the Roman military fleet, but its shallowness and tendency to silt up soon made it unsuitable for warships: in 12 B.C. the military fleet moved to Miseno and the port facilities were converted to civil and commercial use. The Roman road (the Heraclea) that connected the lake to the mainland and the structures of the port, submerged by bradyseism, have been traced with the use of aerial photography and are now visible at sea, with scuba diving to a depth of 3-4 metres. All that remains of the original vegetation, described by ancient writers as luxuriant, is the reed thicket along the lake, an interesting ecosystem of biodiversity, and the gardens of small villas and restaurants built over the years around Lucrino, with aromatic plants and flowers, for peaceful walks or bicycle rides.