The Bourbon Gallery and its underground passageways, the pride of Neapolitan engineering

About this activity

The Galleria Borbonica is one of the best-known underground sites in Naples, originally built at the behest of Ferdinand II of Bourbon in 1853 with the intention of designing an underground tunnel connecting the Royal Palace to Piazza Vittoria, while assuming a military and evasive purpose.

The underground routes

Visits to the Gallery include different tours and routes.

The standard route

There are two access routes to the classic route: the Morelli parking lot or the Vico del Grottone near Plebiscite Square. This is a journey into the past to discover the engineering solutions adopted in the Bourbon era and the geological problems encountered during the works. You will pass between bridges and walls built by the Bourbons to cross the cisterns, war shelters of World War II, encountering fragments of statues, cars and vintage motorcycles.

The classical tour is conducted Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and holidays at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The cost is 11 euros for adults, 7 euros from 11 to 13 years old, and free up to 10 years old. The route is also accessible to people with mobility disabilities for the 60% of the route by entering from the access of Via D. Morelli 61 (pedestrian entrance of the Morelli Parking lot). The route takes about 1 hour.

Street of Memories

This route can be accessed from Interior A14 of the Serra di Cassano Palace on Monte di Dio Street. You'll retrace the last five hundred years of history, starting from the courtyard and then visiting what was once the Palace's carpentry shop and other rooms used as a war museum, but it doesn't end there! Beneath the structure hides another world of tuff quarries, an aqueduct, and a cistern.

The classical tour is conducted Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and holidays at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. The cost is 11 euros for adults, 7 euros from 11 to 13 years old, and free for children up to 10 years old. The route is not accessible to everyone due to the presence of stairs. The route takes 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The adventure trail

The adventure trail, as the name implies, is for the daring and curious: you will wear a helmet orange and you will have with you a flashlight, useful for crossing a series of tunnels, such as that of Pizzofalcone, which will lead you directly to the famous hall of cars, with vintage cars and motorcycles unearthed from the rubble.

You will visit a cistern made in the late 1400s and reach the bottom of a second, where the groundwater; you will be amazed by the 18th-century arches you pass along the way, but even more so by the experience in raft, on which you will board to navigate along the tunnel waters of the ancient Rapid Transit Line, whose work was never completed. Pay attention to the walls, they too have a soul: on them, in fact, you will notice inscriptions, the names and thoughts of Neapolitans who from Carolina Square found in the bowels of the city a refuge from the bombings World War II.

The classical tour is conducted on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and holidays at 10:00 am, 12:00 pm 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm. È not recommended to those suffering from claustrophobia and those with motor problems. Children can enter from 10 years of age, accompanied by an adult. Children between the ages of 10 and 15 must show a ID or tax code. The cost is. 15 euro for adults and 10 euro 10 to 15 years old. The course lasts 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Speleo Light Route

Somewhat like the adventure trail, this experience will also be a fascinating journey through history.

Like a real speleologist you will be equipped with a speleological helmet with a headlamp, ready to explore the tunnels of the ancient underground aqueduct to discover the mysterious symbols engraved on the walls of ancient cisterns partly still filled with water. The protagonist of this route is the Aqueduct of the Bull, on which pozzarians used to make engravings, including religious ones. There is also an opportunity to visit new rooms resulting from the excavation activities of volunteers, who have unearthed discoveries hitherto hidden underground.

The tour is available on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. From April 19 to May 5 daily at the same times. It is not accessible to those who suffer from claustrophobia, exceed a weight of 100 kg and those with even minor motor problems. Only those over 18 can participate at a cost of 15 euros. The route takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Historical background on the gallery

This very large work was designed by architect Errico Alvino. The excavation involved dividing into two tunnels corresponding to the two directions of travel, separated from each other by a parapet for lampposts and sidewalks.

The tunnel heading to Chiaia would have been called the "Royal Gallery" or "Strada Regia," while the opposite tunnel would have been called the "Strada Regina"; both would have started from the old cavalry barracks at the former Via Pace, but one would have reached Largo Carolina behind the colonnade of Piazza del Plebiscito, while the other would have reached Via Santa Lucia. Work began in April 1853: they attacked the mountain at today's Via Domenico Morelli from the widening that coincided with a former quarry square where the present access to the tunnel is located. From it started two tunnels, one vehicular and the other pedestrian, which proceeded parallel for 84 meters and then stopped inside the Cave Carafa, already in existence since the 16th century.

Although the tunnel was literally built by hand, with picks, hammers, wedges, and only flashlights and candles as a source of illumination, the work was completed after only 3 years, in May 1855. On the 25th of the same month there was theinauguration of the Bourbon Gallery on the occasion of Ferdinand II of Bourbon's visit to the city. The basement was a salvation during World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, in fact, 5,000 to 10,000 citizens found refuge in the gallery, which was made more accessible thanks to new openings and a spiral staircase. Until 1970 the gallery was used as a judicial depository of the municipality, which is why we still find remnants at the time found under the rubble caused by bombing; despite this, the ancient tunnels reveal evidence belonging to other eras as well, for example the memorial of the captain Aurelio Padovani, dating back to the World War I.

Work in 2007 revealed other walled passages and cavities used as shelter and, even earlier, by pozzari in the seventeenth century. According to popular tradition, pozzari were known for their ability to descend into the narrowest of burrows because of their small stature: for this reason they were in charge of supplying water from wells for residential use, accessing citizens' homes without warning; their figure, in fact, was often associated with the enigmatic figure of the munaciello.