LAES – Underground Naples
There is a city that teems on the surface, made of sun, voices, and laundry strung between the alleys. This is the Naples of the Spanish Quarters. But exactly beneath that chaotic din, forty metres down, another city exists: a city of silence, tuff stone, and memory.
This is the experience offered by LAES – L'Altra Napoli Sotterranea (The Other Subterranean Naples).
Descending here is not just an archaeological journey; it is an emotional dive into the city's belly, into a labyrinth of tunnels and cisterns that recount millennia of history. But more than anything else, this route is the guardian of 20th-century memory.
These immense voids, originally created as quarries to extract the tuff stone used to build the Naples above, changed their purpose during the Second World War. They became air-raid shelters.
Walking down here means treading the same ground where thousands of Neapolitans waited, in darkness and hope, for the sound of the sirens to cease. It is an experience that strikes a deep chord. You can almost perceive the stories imprinted on the walls, amidst faded graffiti, period artifacts, and even the remains of a military vehicle—mute witnesses to a time suspended.
Visiting LAES Subterranean Naples means exploring the city's hidden depths, discovering how the subsoil is not only Naples' distant past, but also its most recent and resilient soul, inextricably linked to the life flowing by, unaware, just a few metres above.
INFO
ADDRESS: Vico S. Anna di Palazzo, 52 80132 NAPOLI
PHONE NUMBER: +39 081 400256
WEB: https://www.lanapolisotterranea.it/
MAIL: laes@lanapolisotterranea.it
You mught be interested
Visit the sites along the itinerary “Beyond the walls: from Villa Pignatelli to the Duca di Martina Museum”
