Lake Lucrino

About this activity

Heracles is said to have created the thin tongue of land separating Lake Lucrinus from the sea while transporting the oxen of Geryon from the island of Erythraea to Greece.

The Lake Lucrino is a natural basin that originally occupied a much larger area, from Epitaph Point until Punta Caruso. It was part of the Portus Iulius, a military complex with a coastal pier connected to the sea by a canal created by the architect Cocceius around 37 BC.

Toward the end of the 1st century BC, a navigable canal communicating with the Lake Avernus, again for military needs. Lake Avernus formed the inner basin of the port while Lake Lucrino connected with the sea formed the outer basin. The whole area was turned into a shipyard to make supplies and movement easier.

Around 100 BC. Lucius Sergius Orata planted intensive fish, seafood and oyster farms here.

Why visit Lucrino Lake

Along the shores of this lake stood several busy spas, fed by springs of volcanic origin, typical of the Phlegraean Fields.

The beauty and wealth of this place made it a popular destination for the Roman ruling class; in fact, luxurious villas were built on its shores. This area, like all the Phlegraean Fields, is affected by the Bradyseism, in fact around the 10th century the ground subsided significantly submerging everything, and in the following centuries other seismic movements led to the eruption that created Mount New, now home to a wonderful oasis.

Curiosities about Lake Lucrino

The name comes from lucrum, gain, as this lake was a gold mine during the Roman age due to shellfish farming and abundant fishing.

It is said that Agrippina Minor took refuge in a villa near the lake to escape her son Nero's assassins.

Proximity to the Lake Avernus considered the gateway to the underworld, caused any unusual phenomena to give rise to legends and fables. Virgil Indeed, it tells of boiling phenomena, probably sulfurous outflows typical of the area that gave this place a hellish atmosphere at the time.

There is also the testimony of Pliny who tells us of a Cimmerian city between Lake Lucrinus and Lake Avernus, and Stabon who specifies that the Cimmerians lived in underground houses connected by tunnels, where they also welcomed foreigners who came here to question the oracle of the dead.

It seems that it was through the oracle that they derived part of their livelihood, perhaps through a consultation fee set by the king and most likely also by feeding on part of the meat of sacrificed animals.

Lake Lucrino was also the scene of a story by Pliny the Elder about a dolphin who, in the time of Augustus entered the lake. A child who used to pass that way on his way to school noticed him and called him every day by feeding him his snack. A great friendship was born between the two, so much so that the dolphin let him ride on his back to take him to school. Their friendship lasted for several years, until one day the child fell ill and died. The dolphin, however, continued to come every day to the usual place to wait in vain for his friend, eventually becoming more and more saddened until he too died.

The theme of a child riding a dolphin was quite common throughout the Mediterranean, but Pliny probably wanted to locate it in Lake Lucrinus.

In ancient literature, Lucrinus is also found in Horace, Martial and Propertius.