© Jeff Matthews
Naples Miscellany 35 (early March 2011)
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(Mar 7) – Newspapers and local
cultural groups in Pozzuoli have commented on
the state of neglect of the Pozzuoli amphitheater.
The structure was begun under Nero and finished by
Vepasian (69-79 a.d.); it could accommodate 20,000
spectators and was the third largest such structure in
ancient Rome. Not too long ago, it underwent a
tourist-friendly sprucing up and even became a venue
for concerts and opera. Now, however, there has not
been such an event since 2008. The structure, itself,
was obviously reinforced and shored up in order to be
able to host public performances, but smaller bits and
pieces of ancient Rome —columns, marble plaques
with Latin inscriptions, statues— seem to be scattered
almost at random around the site, much of which is
untended and overgrown with weeds. Such items are
exposed to the elements and further deterioration.
(Mar 8) – (Related to this item.) The
hyper-modern interchange station at Afragola for
the treni alta
velocità (high speed trains) has fallen way
behind schedule for technical and financial reasons.
(Round up the usual suspects.) After a three-year
pause in construction, work was resumed last summer,
mostly on the foundations for the station. Progress
has been slow, and to a non-engineer sidewalk
superintendent glancing at it as he drives by, there's
nothing high-speed about it. When finished, the
station is expected to handle 96 trains a day on nine
platforms. The date for completion has been pushed
back from the end of 2011 to the summer of 2012.
UPDATE! FINISHED! June 2017, only 5 years late. The new station has been inaugurated. That does not mean that it now takes passengers. It's a photo op for politicos to stand around and pat themselves on the back. "All aboard" starts next month. At least, that's what they say, and they wouldn't just make that stuff up, right?
(Mar
11) – Besides
upcoming celebrations next week throughout Italy
to mark the 150th anniversary of the modern nation of
Italy, there will be, at least in this neck of the
woods, a few counter-celebrations by groups with such
names as the "Neo-Bourbon Society" (in reference to
the last dynasty to rule the Kingdom of Naples (aka "the Two Sicilies"). I
know a few of them and my impression is that they are
not advocating a dissolution of the modern state of
Italy; they do, however want justice done to the
history of the Risorgimento,
the events that drove the move for Italian
unification. This includes teaching the history of the
state in the decade of the 1860s, one of brutal repression against the
south. A few local educators have taken matters into
their own hands by renaming an elementary school in
Scafati (near Pompei) after "King Ferdinand II of
Bourbon." He was the last real king of Naples. (His
son succeeded him for a few months before Garibaldi
conquered the kingdom in late 1860). Ferdinand II ruled Naples
for the last 30 years of its existence as an
independent state and was largely responsible for
making Naples a modern military and industrial nation.
Those who have renamed the school in his honor simply
say that they want "the real story" to be told. In
truth, it isn't, so maybe they have a point, but the
new name of the school has unleashed a few letters to
the president of Italy bemoaning this kind of
agitation against "the unity of the nation." (A crime,
by the way, although the on-again-off-again
secessionists of the Northern
League have yet to be held to account.)
(Mar 17) And more of the above.
Yesterday's festivities on the occasion of the 150th
anniversary of Italy were broadcast on TV for hours.
In spite of all that, Umberto Bossi (Northern League)
called the celebrations "useless" and "rhetorical" and
some of his own party members were noticed not
standing for the Italian national anthem. The usual
anti-unity rhetoric issued forth from the usual
sources: from the north in German-speaking Bolzano,
from the north-central region where the Northern
League styles its part of the nation as "Padania" and
also from Naples. There was indeed a large unity
celebration at Piazza Plebiscito with bands and flags
and all the trimmings, but the vociferous Society of
the Two Sicilies is also about halfway through three
days of protests to mark "150 years of lies." One of
these events is at the Piazza
dei Martiri where someone has suggested erecting
a statue of a fifth lion, this one to celebrate the
martyrs who died defending the Bourbon kingdom that
fell to Garibaldi in 1860. One of their posters is
seen here; it proclaims "150 Years of Exploitation
Have Reduced You to the Bone." Maybe the celebration
in 2061 will be more "unified," but I wouldn't count
on it.
(April 1) This is not an April Fool's gag, but it might
be nice if it were. Scientists from the Earth Sciences
department of Frederick II University in Naples are
about to release a report that says, essentially, that
the Campi Flegrei, the
volcanic area to the west of Naples in the suburbs of
Fuorigrotta, Bagnoli, Agnano and in the town of
Pozzuoli —in short, all the land bordering on the Bay
of Pozzuoli— contains volcanic features much younger
than previously thought. This does not affect the
calculation of the general age of the massive
archiflegrean caldera (see this
link) that the entire area rests in, but rather
the later features that erupted into prominence over
the millennia within that area, such as the Solfatara (photo, above) and
the volcanic island of Nisida.
The Nisida volcano might be less than 4,000 years old
rather than 10,000, as previously held. This has
importance for those concerned with civil defense in
what is now a heavily populated area. The earthquake
of 1980 and related
aftershocks were bad enough: the outskirt
community of New Pozzuoli had to be built to take
refugees from the stricken areas; the port of Pozzuoli
had to be rebuilt; etc. etc. Now emergency planners
want to know if the new calculations will translate
into the possibility that the entire area is
potentially more active than thought since it is
younger than thought. (For more on general geology of
the area, see the Underground
Naples Portal.)
- (April 8) Another "closed until further notice" has popped up, this one at the Fontanelle cemetery, one of the most well-known and characteristic sites in Naples. It is arcane and weird on such a scale that the city recently spent millions to renovate and secure the premises in an attempt to attract tourist trade. It worked and was already starting to show financial benefit in the surrounding Sanità quarter. The cemetery (an ossuary, really) is in a large cavern, one of many in or beneath Naples; the other day a 1,700 kg (about 3,500 pounds) piece of rock fell from the ceiling just inside the entrance! —that is, right where tourists would have been waiting to get in had it not happened at about 3 am. So, they have rightfully closed the Fontanelle with no word yet on how long it will take to guarantee the structural integrity of the premises. (update: Aug. 2011. It has reopened.)
- (April 22) The police have uncovered an interesting archaeological site —at least potentially. It's a Roman mausoleum in Pozzuoli. The discovery came when authorities were digging around and about to close down an illegal rubbish dump site of some 1,700 sq. meters in area (about half an acre) where 58 tons of "special refuse" had been deposited. That means that the refuse has been separated —you know... bottles here, metal there, paper over there. It was all over the Roman site. I guess the good news is that at least the dumpers separate their trash.
(April
23) Selene
Salvi of Napoli Underground (NUg) is not only a
scholar, she's a cross between watch-dog and passionaria when
it comes to the topic of the tunnels, caves and
quarries beneath the city. Her latest article on the NUG website
shreds yet another bit of urban archaeology in the
pages of the daily, il
Mattino. Their latest sensational and
breathless discovery has to do with the supposed
"Templar" symbols, 12 crosses, discovered beneath the
church of Santa Maria Maggiore
alla Pietrasanta and inscribed on the
walls of a mysterious underground tunnel that,
according to the paper, connects the church directly
to the lair of the infamous alchemist, the prince of
Sansevero, Raimondo di Sangro.
Except, says, Selene, that is nothing new. We've been
down there and filmed the crosses (link to the NUG
video from 2009), and there is no evidence of exactly
who put them there. Further, the article misstates
distances to create the impression of a single
specific tunnel between the church and the residence
of di Sangro in saying that "all buildings in that
area are connected." They are not, says Salvi.) Worse,
the newspaper confuses historical persons with similar
names and says things that are simply wrong, even
inane, such as that the skull and cross-bones, the
"Jolly Roger," is a Templar symbol, which it is not.
Also, the "twelve crosses" would be nice since that
number has such obvious Christian symbolism connected
with it, but there are more crosses than that. The
journalist just thought it would be a nice touch —"so
Templarish," says Selene. In short, she says, stop
writing about what you know nothing
about. Photo courtesy of NUG
- (April 28) -The Floridiana park, which was closed late this month (see this link), has been reopened, at least partially. Some areas may be closed off until such time as the trees are determined to be safe —that is, that they won't fall and kill someone.
- (April 28) - Hometown philosopher, Giambattista Vico, will be 343 years old in June. That would not surprise him since he is the one who pretty much invented the saying "What goes around, comes around." He might be pleased to know that a library will open in June right next to his birthplace on via San Biagio dei librai. It will, of course, be a Vichian library. Whether or not he would like that adjective, I don't know; it invites confusion with vichyste, a partisan of the collaborationist Vichy regime in France in WWII, itself inviting more confusion with Vichyssois, residents of the city of Vichy, nowhere near via San Biago dei Librai. But whoever said that philosophy was easy?
(April 29)-The Capodimonte Royal Wood is
in the midst of a grand restoration project, according
to Guido Gullo, director of the grounds. When the
palace and grounds at Capodimonte were originally laid
out and built in the 1700s, farmland was converted
into a vast hunting reserve for the royal family. The
gardens and orchards within the reserve became the
source of highly sought-after fruits and other
produce. The current plan is to restore 26,000 sq.
meters (c. 6.5 acres) to its original agricultural and
horticultural use as well as to make the area suitable
for tourism.
(April 30) - Bagnoli and the Ruhr.
In 2013 the Overseas Fair
Grounds (Mostra
d'Oltremare) in Fuorigrotta will host
something called the "Culture Forum." One of the
themes will be the ongoing process of converting the
blight of post-industrialism —all the closed and
rusted factories, decayed waterfronts, etc.— into
pleasant bits of suburbia, places of parks, shops,
schools and homes where people will want to live and
tourists visit.
One of the most successful such efforts in Europe has been the Ruhr region in North Rhine-Westphalia in east-central Germany. It is one of the most densely populated areas in Europe and was one of the most heavily industrialized. Over the last few decades, "post-industrialization" has taken place, and the Ruhr now has theaters, cultural centers, festivals and museums (including what are now called "industrial museums"). As a run-up to the Culture Forum, a gentleman from the Ruhr, Hans-Dietrich Schmidt, was in Naples the other day to explain the "Ruhr model" to local officials and business persons who would like to use that model for the further development of Bagnoli, once site of the Italsider steel works. Bagnoli has had some successes: a new theater, the North Pier, a hands-on science museum and exposition ground called Science City, a "Turtle Point" extension of the Dohrn Aquarium, a Maritime Museum, etc. There have been failures as well, such as the failure to lure the America's Cup regatta to Bagnoli a few years ago, which would have meant money for the construction of a suitable harbor. Some things are still up in the air, such as a proposed Bagnoli Green Park and an industrial museum. I gather from various sources that Herr Schmidt's presentation was a pretty solid pep-talk. You need two things: money and political will. One of those items alone won't do the trick. Both might. [This item is also included on the Consolidated Bagnoli page.]
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