Underwater Park ”Gaiola” (Parco sommerso di Gaiola) description and photos - Italy: Campania (Topic)

Underwater park "Gaiola" (Parco sommerso di Gaiola) description and photos - Italy: Campania. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Parco sommerso di Gaiola.

Photo & Description

The Gaiola Underwater Park in the Campania region of Italy is an area of great archeology and ecology, as ancient ruins and thriving colonies of animals and plants coexist side by side. The park was created in 2002 to carry out archaeological work - on its territory there are the ruins of an ancient Roman villa and other structures that are today under water due to the geological phenomenon of bradyseism (raising and lowering of the earth's surface). In ancient times, the coastline was 3-4 meters higher than the current level. A visit to the park will be interesting from a geological point of view, since the local hills of Posillipo are the eastern end of the volcanic zone of the Phlegrean Fields.

From the 1st century BC Posilippo's coastal area was densely populated, as people were attracted by the incredible beauty of the scenery and the convenient geographical location near the commercial port of Baia and the military port of Capo Miseno. The very name of Posilippo comes from the ancient Greek name of the villa Pazilipon, which means "the place where all sorrows come to an end." The villa was built by the wealthy Roman Publius Pollio in the 1st century BC, and when Pollio died, it became the property of the future emperor Augustus. As an imperial domain, the villa has been expanded and rebuilt several times. Today, at the bottom of the underwater park, you can still see fragments of a theater, an odeon, fish ponds for breeding moray eels and nymphea, a structure used by the Romans for taking sea baths. And in the eastern part of "Gaiola" there are the ruins of another ancient structure - the so-called Casa degli Spiriti, the House with Ghosts.

You can get to Gaiola through the impressive Seiano Cave - this 770 meter long tunnel was carved into the Posilippo hills in order to connect the luxurious villa with the road on the Phlegrean Fields, where the villas of other wealthy Romans were located.

We also recommend reading Art Museum description and photos - Russia - North-West: Cherepovets

Topic: Underwater Park ”Gaiola” (Parco sommerso di Gaiola) description and photos - Italy: Campania.