Napoli Sotterranea is another side of Naples, still partly unknown but definitely fascinating. This underground world lies 40 metres deep, right under the historic centre of Campania’s capital city. Napoli Sotterranea is the name of the association that has been taking care of this hidden treasure since the 1980s.
The Greeks took from the quarries beneath the Parthenopean soil the yellow tufa needed to build Neapolis and created funeral hypogea in the area. The Romans built an imposing aqueduct and a series of tunnels underground, such as the Grotta di Cocceio and the Grotta di Seiano. The aqueduct increased in size as the population of the city grew. This dense network of tunnels and cisterns, no less than 2 million square metres, was abandoned at the beginning of the 20th century. Later, World War II bombings turned these places into air-raid shelters.