entry Feb 2012
Beneath Mt. Echia
Mt. Echia (also called Pizzofalcone and Monte di Dio) does not particularly stand out today in Naples. If you do notice it, it appears as a bulge near the Egg Castle. Today, its prominence is obscured by the 20 or so modern square blocks of tall buildings added to the city during the Risanamento (urban renewal, see map below) in 1900 between Mt. Echia and the sea as well as the very large buildings now built on the hill, itself. (The Nunziatella military academy, the red bulding, far left-center in the photo, seems to stand out the most.) Yet, before there was an Egg Castle, and, indeed, even before there were Romans in Naples (or anywhere!), this bulge supported a prehistoric population and was the hill upon which the Greeks later built their city, Parthenope, which then merged with the late-comer, Neapolis (Naples). In Roman times, Mt. Echia encompassed the famous villa of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who added the expression "Lucullan splendor" to our vocabularies. His villa and gardens extended down the side of the hill to the waters in front of the isle of Megaride, where the Egg Castle would later stand; they may even have extended to the east to the point of today's main port) where the Maschio Angioino would later be built.
Mt. Echia was at one time quite a visible
feature
in Naples. This painting by Achenbach done in
1875 shows it to be such. The view is from via
Santa Lucia, no longer on the sea front!
(See map, below.)
in Naples. This painting by Achenbach done in
1875 shows it to be such. The view is from via
Santa Lucia, no longer on the sea front!
(See map, below.)
The rock that Mt.
Echia is made of is the classic yellow Neapolitan tuff,
the most widely used of all building materials in Naples.
The inside of the hill is honeycombed with quarries,
caves, aqueducts and tunnels both old and new. These
underground spaces include everything from the Greek
cavern and Temple of Mithra to
the modern Vittoria Tunnel (1929) and everything in
between: the Bourbon Tunnel
(the 1850s) (recently renovated as a tourist attraction),
a vast network of aqueduct lines
(both ancient and new), and large private quarries to
supply building material. There is even a modern elevator
in the Vittoria Tunnel to provide easy access to offices
of the telephone company up on top of the hill. (I imagine
it is only for those who work there. Peasants have to take
the long way around—and it is long.) The surface of Mt. Echia is
overbuilt with an astonishing array of structures. Besides
the Nunziatella (mentioned above) these include another
large military headquarters and barracks, the Serra di Cassano building (seat
of the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies), and
the top entrance (#1, below) of the three-tier station for
the new Metro line 6 (under construction, #1 & dotted
line, below). Most of the spaces burrowed in the hill
served as air-raid shelters during WWII. More recent
additions to the honeycomb have included the
never-finished train tunnel (#6) beneath Piazza
Plebiscito, started in the late 1980s and then abandoned.
There
were many changes to the city from 1885-1915. They
include the new blocks shown below in orange along the
sea as well as via Partenope. It is all on land-fill.
The original seaside roads were via Chiatamone and via
S. Lucia on the west and east, respectively. Via Chiaia
bounded Mt. Echia on the north. The
irregular shapes shown in green and blue are cisterns
cut into the rock at various times through the
centuries. They were joined to various aqueduct lines
(the black lines). No surface structures on Mt. Echia
are shown on this graphic; the pale green patches are
blocks of buildings; the white spaces are streets and
squares.More specifically by numbers on the map:
#1. The
purple dot is the new Martiri Metro station.It is the
top entrance (20 meters above via Chiaia. The two lines
across v. Chiaia (above the purple dot) are a bridge
(photo 1, below) to allow access from the north onto Mt.
Echia. The dotted line leading from #1 to the SW shows
the path of the new Metro train tunnel still being
built;
#2. The Grotto of
Mithra; #3. & # 4. are
related: #4 is where the Bourbon Tunnel builders
first dug into the hill. That space now houses a
multi-story car-park; that opens onto n. 3, the old
Carafa Quarry and the entrance to the Bourbon Tunnel
archaeological site; #5.
West entrance, 700-m. "Vittoria" traffic tunnel (1929)
(photo 2, below). It exits on the port road below
the Royal Palace, just off the right-hand side of this
map.
Numbers 2, 3, 4 & 5
are all at street level (almost sea level), well below
#1 and the entire Echia hill. The hill slopes up from #1
to #7 (c. 100 m. above sea-level). #6. Piazza Plebiscito, with the Royal Palace
on the east is well above the street and sea level of
the western side of the Echia Hill. The dotted lines at
#6 show the now abandoned tunnel of the Rapid Train line
from the 1980s. #7. The
original "corner" of Mt. Echia (photo 3, below). The
solid line indicates a large, high retaining wall.
#8. The Lamont Young ramp. You can
hike up to the Mt. Echia height here. Or you can (a) come in at #1, (b) walk up at the south
side of Piazza Plebiscito or (c)
use another stairway just north of #7 on the map.
Addenda from Larry Ray:
If you walk counter-clockwise around the hill, you can start at the Royal Palace (#6) and walk west up via Chiaia. Below the bridge at #1 (photo 1, below) there are stairs and an elevator up to the hill. Or keep going to Piazza dei Martiri, turn down via D. Morelli and pass #'s 4 & 5 by the tunnel entrance (photo, below). You can also walk through the tunnel to the port, but don't.) Continue on via Chiatamone where you will walk between the original hill and the string of high buildings from 1900. There is a ramp at #8 that takes you to the top and the soon (we hope) restored villa Ebe, home of architect Lamont Young. Or keep going and turn left around the corner at the retaining wall (#7) [photo, below right]. That puts you onto via S. Lucia, one block from the coast. (There is another stairway up the hill not far from that corner.) Via S. Lucia slopes up to meet via Cesario Console at a point slightly off the right side of the map. Turn left onto via C. Console and you are almost back at Piazza Plebiscito and the Royal Palace. From via C. Console there is an external stairway down to street level and the small Molosiglio boat harbor below the Palace and, at the beginning of Piazza Plebiscito, there is another stairway and elevator down to the eastern exit of the tunnel that you wisely decided not to walk through.
"The huge quarry in green [top left on map] has an interesting back story as well. The entrance to what is now the multi-screen cinemaplex, and what you will remember as the old Metropolitan Cinema is right there on the curve in via Chiaia not far from the overhead roadway arch. I used to go to the cinema when I was trying so hard to learn Italian ... Had no idea it was in the huge quarry. Do you know about the emergency exit? It is the long lighted tunnel that leads up the side of the green giant, heads up its left side, loops up, then back down and then turns basically West and exits onto rampa Brancaccio. Also, after the Metropolitan closed, it all remained vacant for a long time, then some promoters were going to put in a huge parking garage but that got defeated and the cinema multiplex finally was built, utilizing the huge central area of the quarry.
"...the narrow quarry that enlarges on its southern end in yellow right at the tip of your dotted line arrow was going to be a private gold mine after being converted to parking. During the Mussolini days, a shady entrepreneur was going to develop this into a large parking garage by having an access road cut somehow basically off the Santa Maria Capella Vecchia near the rampa Caprioli. The Duce and his boys nixed the deal."
If you walk counter-clockwise around the hill, you can start at the Royal Palace (#6) and walk west up via Chiaia. Below the bridge at #1 (photo 1, below) there are stairs and an elevator up to the hill. Or keep going to Piazza dei Martiri, turn down via D. Morelli and pass #'s 4 & 5 by the tunnel entrance (photo, below). You can also walk through the tunnel to the port, but don't.) Continue on via Chiatamone where you will walk between the original hill and the string of high buildings from 1900. There is a ramp at #8 that takes you to the top and the soon (we hope) restored villa Ebe, home of architect Lamont Young. Or keep going and turn left around the corner at the retaining wall (#7) [photo, below right]. That puts you onto via S. Lucia, one block from the coast. (There is another stairway up the hill not far from that corner.) Via S. Lucia slopes up to meet via Cesario Console at a point slightly off the right side of the map. Turn left onto via C. Console and you are almost back at Piazza Plebiscito and the Royal Palace. From via C. Console there is an external stairway down to street level and the small Molosiglio boat harbor below the Palace and, at the beginning of Piazza Plebiscito, there is another stairway and elevator down to the eastern exit of the tunnel that you wisely decided not to walk through.
1. arch
on via Chiaia |
2. Vittoria tunnel
 |
3. retaining wall
 |
THE
LITTLE LIFT THAT COULDN'T COULD
PROBABLY WILL BE ABLE TO:
Finally, note in photo 3 the construction site at the base of the retaining wall (#7 on the map). It is the bottom station of a passenger elevator that will connect via Santa Lucia (at sea level) with the top of Mt. Echia, where there is a similar construction site. The plan for the lift was proposed in 2005. Construction began in February 2009 and is supposed to finish in April 2012. They are behind schedule, but not by much. I spoke with a man on the job yesterday and asked, "Weeks, months or years?" He smiled and said, "Maybe a few months." The heavy lifting and digging is done; that is, the shaft, itself, from the top of the hill down to the bottom is done. The perimeter of Mt. Echia at the top is still sealed off as they prepare to build the external station and entrance. The remaining work is much more than cosmetic, however, and I give it a year. The elevator would benefit the population of Mt. Echia immeasurably; there would finally be an easy way to get up and down. Tourism would increase. (It is currently at zero.) That fact, alone, should improve the degraded state of some of the streets and buildings on the upper perimeter of Mt. Echia. The original plan called for a rebuilding of the nearby Lamont Young Ramp as well as other sections up on top. Whether that will follow the opening of the new elevator remains to be seen. Obviously, the fabled panorama will never be what it was because of the modern insertion of 20+ blocks of seaside buildings (the orange segments on the map, above). They could implode a few of those (!) but I don't think that will happen.
BUT - updates from May 2015 and June 2016
Finally, note in photo 3 the construction site at the base of the retaining wall (#7 on the map). It is the bottom station of a passenger elevator that will connect via Santa Lucia (at sea level) with the top of Mt. Echia, where there is a similar construction site. The plan for the lift was proposed in 2005. Construction began in February 2009 and is supposed to finish in April 2012. They are behind schedule, but not by much. I spoke with a man on the job yesterday and asked, "Weeks, months or years?" He smiled and said, "Maybe a few months." The heavy lifting and digging is done; that is, the shaft, itself, from the top of the hill down to the bottom is done. The perimeter of Mt. Echia at the top is still sealed off as they prepare to build the external station and entrance. The remaining work is much more than cosmetic, however, and I give it a year. The elevator would benefit the population of Mt. Echia immeasurably; there would finally be an easy way to get up and down. Tourism would increase. (It is currently at zero.) That fact, alone, should improve the degraded state of some of the streets and buildings on the upper perimeter of Mt. Echia. The original plan called for a rebuilding of the nearby Lamont Young Ramp as well as other sections up on top. Whether that will follow the opening of the new elevator remains to be seen. Obviously, the fabled panorama will never be what it was because of the modern insertion of 20+ blocks of seaside buildings (the orange segments on the map, above). They could implode a few of those (!) but I don't think that will happen.
BUT - updates from May 2015 and June 2016
map credit: The original map indicating cisterns, tunnels and aqueducts comes to me through the kind courtesy of Mr. Fulvio Salvi of Napoli Underground (NUG). With his help I have altered it from the original for this page.
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