entry June 2009
Via Antiniana
& a Roman Bridge
to Vomero
In Naples,
one expects to find Roman and earlier Greek ruins at sea
level; indeed, the discovery of large-scale structures
and even of ships in the
ancient Roman port has led to considerable delay
in the construction of the new underground train line,
the metropolitana.
(It was, of course, that construction that led to the
discoveries in the first place.)
It is less known that the Romans built on the
Vomero hill above and behind the main body of the city.
Before the Romans cut through the Posillipo hill with
the tunnel now popularly called the “Neapolitan Crypt” for an
easy (once you got the tunnel dug!) sea-level passage
out of the city to the west, the only road from Naples
to Pozzuoli was the Via Antiniana (the etymology of the
name is unknown). It was a hill climber and a major
demonstration of something the Romans did very well in
their Imperial Age —road building.
At the Neapolitan end, the via Antiniana
started at the center of Neapolis and passed through a
gate in the western wall. (All of the following points
of reference are modern names.) It then climbed the
steep salita [ascent]
Tarsia, went past Piazza Mazzini and up via Salvator Rosa
and its extension, via
Cerra; it skirted around and below the
highpoint of the hill (where the Sant’Elmo castle
stands) and moved across in a straight line to the ridge
along via Belvedere
and along the top of Vomero, east to west, to drop down
at the other end of Vomero onto the plain that led to
the via Domiziana
and Pozzuoli. The Via Antiniana was rebuilt as late as
100 A.D. There are still visible remnants of the roadbed
(basolato) on
the Vomero (at Piazza
degli Artisti), and some paving stones, called
basoli, have
been used over the centuries in structures built in the
area, including the villa Salve (also known as the villa Winspeare). At
the bottom of the Vomero on the Pozzuoli side, several
bits of the road are preserved in the excavated thermal baths on via Terracina near
the Fair Grounds (the Mostra
d’Oltremare) and on the grounds of the Mostra,
itself.
During the
excavation for the Salvator Rosa metro station
(approximately half-way up the hill on via Salvator
Rosa), remains were found of a bridge-viaduct of the
Via Antiniana (photo, top). Some of that structure has
been restored as an archaeological site and may be
viewed. The structure is believed to have consisted of
seven arches. It was built in reticulated brickwork;
the lintels of the arches consisted of slabs, called
bipedal bricks, (60 cm—23.6 inches—on a side) clamped
into the back vaults. The barrel vaults were built
with a cast of cement in a wooden framework supported
by centerings. A system of large brackets in piperno rock anchored to the high part of the walls
was used to hook scaffolding for the maintenance of
the viaduct. Parts of the bridge were actually
incorporated into an 18th-century building, itself
torn down during the excavations for the new train
line.
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