Welcome to the site Napoliforme

The dark and mysterious lake, home to a sanctuary dedicated to the gods of the underworld, was for the Greeks and Romans the entrance to Hades, the world of the underworld. Along its banks is the Antro della Sibilla, the scene of the prophecies of the Cumaean Sibyl according to legend. The fame of Avernus as a sacred and terrible place is confirmed by the description of the Greek geographer Strabo (before 60 BC - about 20 AD), taken up by Virgil in the Aeneid: at that time the miasma of its waters - believed to be poisonous because they were caused by the infernal rivers, but toxic exhalations of hydrogen sulphide and carbonic acid - prevented birds from flying over it, giving rise to the name Avernus (from the Greek aòrno, birdless). The military engineering works of 37 B.C. did not change the otherworldly perception of the place but intervened forcefully in the layout of the territory: the need to defend an area of strategic importance required the construction of a new port for the military fleet (the Portus Julius, later silted up by bradyseism). The grandiose project involved cutting the coastal dune that isolated Lake Lucrino from the sea, the outpost of the port, while Averno was linked to Lucrino by a navigable canal and became the inner basin, the site of the arsenals. Averno, part of the Phlegraean Fields Regional Park, is a crater of 151 hectares. Its bottom is occupied by the lake, surrounded by rich and typically Mediterranean vegetation, with holm oaks, white willows, broom, willow trees and maritime pines. Since the original environmental conditions have changed, there are many birds that now animate the oasis: seagulls of different species, coots, kingfishers... A unique natural area, an evocative immersion in nature surrounded by the charm of history and myth.