Description
The Virgilian Park at Piedigrotta, also called the park of the tombs of Virgil and Leopardi, is a small archaeological park on Salita della Grotta in Naples, behind the church of Piedigrotta. It holds the tomb that tradition says is Virgil's and the monument where Giacomo Leopardi is believed to rest. Not to be confused with the Virgilian park of Posillipo.
Two great poets in a small park: yet of neither can anyone swear that he is really here. And it is precisely this doubt, centuries old, that makes the place so fascinating. The area is a national monument and admission is free.
The path climbs through the greenery. Right away on the left is a tuff-stone aedicule with two plaques put up in 1668 by the viceroy Pedro Antonio de Aragón: they list the thermal springs of the Phlegraean Fields, from Fuorigrotta to Pozzuoli, and the illnesses each could cure.
At the top of the climb, an enormous marble monument: the tomb of Leopardi. It is a tall altar on a wide square base, inside an artificial grotto dug into the tuff bank. The poet, who died in Naples, has rested here since February 22, 1939, after a first burial in the church of San Vitale at Fuorigrotta.
Beside it, a stele signed by Victor Emmanuel III attests to the tomb's authenticity, and a plaque recalls the law of 1897 that declared it a national monument. Farther on, a line of Leopardi's dedicated to Virgil.
The so-called tomb of Virgil is a Roman columbarium mausoleum, in concrete faced with reticulate work: a cubic base with a cylindrical drum above. Inside, a square chamber with a barrel vault, three narrow windows and ten niches where the urns once stood.
Today the monument seems suspended over the drop, because the Roman-era walking level is higher than the present one: in the fifteenth century Alfonso of Aragon widened the nearby tunnel and lowered its floor.
The park looks out over the Crypta Neapolitana, an imposing Roman-era tunnel between Mergellina and Fuorigrotta, also called the Grotto of Pozzuoli or of Posillipo. Along the way there is also a stretch of the Augustan aqueduct of the Serino and a niche with medieval frescoes.
The park was refurbished in 1885, when the Quattro Giornate tunnel opened, but only around 1930 did it take its present form, at the wish of the Latinist and archaeologist Enrico Cocchia, and it was restored and reopened in 1976.
Don't miss
• The tomb of Virgil.
• The tomb of Leopardi.
• The viceroy's plaques on the Phlegraean baths.
• The inscription of 1554.
Did you know?
• In 1554 the canons of Piedigrotta placed an ironic inscription in front of the tomb that begins "Qui cineres?", that is, "What ashes?".
• From 1662 the area belonged to a noble family who had a villa here with a country lodge; it became a park around 1930, for the Virgilian bimillennium.
Two great poets in a small park: yet of neither can anyone swear that he is really here. And it is precisely this doubt, centuries old, that makes the place so fascinating. The area is a national monument and admission is free.
The path climbs through the greenery. Right away on the left is a tuff-stone aedicule with two plaques put up in 1668 by the viceroy Pedro Antonio de Aragón: they list the thermal springs of the Phlegraean Fields, from Fuorigrotta to Pozzuoli, and the illnesses each could cure.
At the top of the climb, an enormous marble monument: the tomb of Leopardi. It is a tall altar on a wide square base, inside an artificial grotto dug into the tuff bank. The poet, who died in Naples, has rested here since February 22, 1939, after a first burial in the church of San Vitale at Fuorigrotta.
Beside it, a stele signed by Victor Emmanuel III attests to the tomb's authenticity, and a plaque recalls the law of 1897 that declared it a national monument. Farther on, a line of Leopardi's dedicated to Virgil.
The so-called tomb of Virgil is a Roman columbarium mausoleum, in concrete faced with reticulate work: a cubic base with a cylindrical drum above. Inside, a square chamber with a barrel vault, three narrow windows and ten niches where the urns once stood.
Today the monument seems suspended over the drop, because the Roman-era walking level is higher than the present one: in the fifteenth century Alfonso of Aragon widened the nearby tunnel and lowered its floor.
The park looks out over the Crypta Neapolitana, an imposing Roman-era tunnel between Mergellina and Fuorigrotta, also called the Grotto of Pozzuoli or of Posillipo. Along the way there is also a stretch of the Augustan aqueduct of the Serino and a niche with medieval frescoes.
The park was refurbished in 1885, when the Quattro Giornate tunnel opened, but only around 1930 did it take its present form, at the wish of the Latinist and archaeologist Enrico Cocchia, and it was restored and reopened in 1976.
Don't miss
• The tomb of Virgil.
• The tomb of Leopardi.
• The viceroy's plaques on the Phlegraean baths.
• The inscription of 1554.
Did you know?
• In 1554 the canons of Piedigrotta placed an ironic inscription in front of the tomb that begins "Qui cineres?", that is, "What ashes?".
• From 1662 the area belonged to a noble family who had a villa here with a country lodge; it became a park around 1930, for the Virgilian bimillennium.