Pompeii and Herculaneum

The archaeological excavations of Pompeii only 40km away the excavations of Pompeii have returned the remains of the ancient city, near the hill of Civita, at the gates of modern Pompeii, buried under a blanket of ashes and lapilli during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79, together in Herculaneum, Stabia and Oplonti. The findings following the excavations, begun at the behest of Charles III of Bourbon, are one of the best testimonies of Roman life, as well as the best preserved city of that era. Most of the finds recovered (in addition to simple furnishings for everyday use, also frescoes, mosaics and statues) are kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, and in small quantities also in the Antiquarium of Pompeii; precisely the considerable amount of finds was useful in helping to understand the uses, customs, eating habits and the art of life of over two millennia ago.

The Pompeii site, in 2016, exceeded three million visitors, to be precise 3 209 089, making it the third most visited state museum site in Italy after the Pantheon and the archaeological circuit of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. In 1997, to preserve their integrity, the ruins, managed by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, together with those of Herculaneum and Oplonti, became part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. The first excavations in the Pompeii area took place starting from 1748, at the behest of Charles III of Bourbon following the success of the findings of Herculaneum: the surveys were carried out by Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre, who, believing he was on the trail of the ancient Stabiae, unearthed several coins and objects from the Roman period near the hill of Civita, as well as portions of buildings, promptly covered after exploration.

The explorations were soon abandoned due to the scarce finds and resumed only in 1754; in 1763, thanks to the discovery of an epigraph, which clearly spoke of the Res Publica Pompeianorum, it was understood that it was the ancient city of Pompeii. With Maria Carolina, wife of Ferdinand IV, and the engineer Francesco La Vega, part of the city, such as the theater area, the temple of Isis, the Triangular Forum, several houses and necropolises were completely brought to light and no longer buried, but remained visible; it was during the French dominion, headed by Gioacchino Murat and his wife Carolina, that the excavations enjoyed a moment of fortune: the walls were identified and the area of ​​Porta Ercolano was almost completely brought to light; moreover, thanks to the publications desired by Carolina, the fame of Pompeii grew throughout Europe, becoming an obligatory stop on the Grand Tour. With the return of the Bourbons to Naples, the excavations experienced a period of stasis: if we exclude Francesco I, with Ferdinand II and Francesco II, the ruins were used only as a place to be visited by court guests.

Following the unification of Italy and above all thanks to greater economic resources, under the leadership of Giuseppe Fiorelli, there was a quick resumption of investigations, in an orderly manner, with the first division of the city into regiones and insulae; in 1863 the technique of casts was introduced, while, between 1870 and 1885, the first map of the entire Pompeian area was drawn up. During the twentieth century, with the archaeologists Vittorio Spinazzola first and Amedeo Maiuri after, most of the excavations were completed near Porta Ercolano, the southern area of ​​the city and Villa dei Misteri, while important investigative sessions were undertaken along Via of Abundance. Starting from the sixties, restoration work was necessary for the existing buildings, which greatly slowed down new excavations, also due to economic problems. In 1980 the site was severely damaged by the Irpinia earthquake. Between the nineties and the 10ths of the new millennium, the new excavations were concentrated in the area of ​​the IX regio, although many funds were diverted to the conservation and restoration of the monuments already excavated; in 1997 the archaeological area became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Following the lack of a restoration plan for the entire site, accentuated by the collapse of the House of the Gladiators in 2010, the European Union allocated a loan to safeguard the excavations: however, during the course of the renovations, which took the name of "Great Pompeii Project", other collapses occurred, mostly concerning parts of masonry, roof beams or pieces of plaster.