Welcome to the site Napoliforme

Symbolic sites in the Phlegraean Fields reconstruct the red thread that tells of the passage from the cults of the ancient world to the devotion to the heroic protagonists of early Christianity. The Solfatara in Pozzuoli is the scene of the martyrdom of one of the best-known patrons of the Phlegraean lands: Gennaro, patron saint of Naples. The Sanctuary of San Gennaro alla Solfatara is dedicated to him, guardian of the stone on which the saint was decapitated. Along with other companions, Proculus shared his fate, to whom the Cathedral of St Proculus in Pozzuoli is consecrated, recognising him as patron saint, on the acropolis of Roman Puteoli: the Christian structures reused and concealed the splendid ancient temple, rediscovered in 1964. The Flavian Amphitheatre recalls the story of the torture that finds its epilogue in the Solfatara: destined to be mauled, the martyrs are led into the arena but the beasts refuse to attack them. In the Temple of Serapis (actually the Roman marketplace) we find the presence of a Mediterranean divinity worshipped by merchants from Alexandria, while the feast of Our Lady of the Assumption combines the sacred and the profane. Cultural influences and religious suggestions 'travelled' together with goods and merchants, and the Temple of Isis at Cumae is one of the important testimonies to the spread of cults from Egypt, which were opposed by the Christian faith and destined to be forgotten. Veneration of the gods and their temples is overlaid by deference to the saints and the buildings named after them, such as the church of San Sossio in Miseno, martyred at the Solfatara and patron saint of Miseno and Frattamaggiore, the church of Santa Maria Libera nos a Scandalis in Quarto, whose origins are steeped in legends and references to ancient divinities, or the sanctuary of Maria Santissima Annunziata in Giugliano in Campania with its spectacular festival dedicated to the mysterious Madonna della Pace.