Museo archeologico dei Campi Flegrei description and photos - Italy: Campania (Topic)

Museum of the Phlegrean Fields in the castle of Baia (Museo archeologico dei Campi Flegrei) 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 Museo archeologico dei Campi Flegrei.

Photo and description

Baia Castle and the Phlegrean Fields Museum are one of the few places in Europe where archeology, history, myths and even geology are intertwined in a very small area (in the western part of the Gulf of Naples)! Baja Castle, which can also be called a fortress, rises above the surrounding area - today it houses the Phlegrean Fields Museum. It stands at the western end of the Gulf of Naples at Cape Capo Miseno near Cuma, the first permanent Greek colony on the Apennine Peninsula. Around the castle are the ruins of the great Porta Giulio - the home port of the western fleet of Ancient Rome, now flooded and turned into an underwater archaeological park. You can explore these ruins on a glass bottom boat tour or dive. Also preserved are numerous fragments of ancient Roman villas, temples and cisterns, which are scattered throughout the territory. In the immediate vicinity of the castle is the place where, according to Virgil, Mizenus, the master of musical instruments, challenged the god of the seas Triton, and even further away is the lake Lago Averno, where the same Virgil placed the entrance to hell.

For centuries - from the 16th century until the unification of Italy in 1861 - the Baia Castle was an important defensive structure on the approaches to Naples, the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The entire complex covers an area of about 45 thousand square meters. at 94 meters above sea level. Architecturally, it is a mixture of styles, since it was built in the 1490s by the Aragonese dynasty to protect their possessions from the attacks of the French king Charles VIII and was subsequently expanded and rebuilt. The last time it was reconstructed was at the end of the 18th century. In addition to being one of the most impressive fortresses on the coast of the Gulf of Naples, Baia Castle served other functions - diplomatic, cultural, scientific and even corrective. Guests of the kingdom stayed in it, one of the first laboratories for the study of volcanism on the territory of the Phlegraean fields was located, and even a prison! In 1927, an orphanage for children of soldiers who died during the First World War was opened in the castle. Then the building was abandoned for a long time, and after the earthquake of 1980, those whose houses were destroyed found shelter in it.

In 1993, Bahia Castle was purchased by the Department of Archeology and the Museum of the Phlegraean Fields was opened there. The three floors of the northern tower are dedicated not only to the history of the castle itself, but also to the archaeological past of the vast region of Campi Flegrei. Here you can see the reconstruction of a real "sachellum" - a small ancient Roman temple discovered in 1986 in the waters of Punta Sarparella, a reconstruction of a nymph with statues of the emperor Claudius and Ulysses, plaster casts, etc.

We also recommend reading State Museum description and photos - India: Hyderabad

Topic: Museo archeologico dei Campi Flegrei description and photos - Italy: Campania.