Along Via Puteolis – Capuam lies the monumental necropolis known as San Vito, where, thanks to European funding, it has recently been possible to excavate some of the southernmost structures of the fifth East section. The investigation brought to light the last six buildings, of which only the facades had been visible, as they were completely hidden by colluvial material that had slid down from the hill of the Cigliano crater. All include an underground chamber, whose walls feature multiple rows of niches designed to house urns containing the ashes of the deceased, with side benches often reused for later formae (pit burials for inhumations), and an upper level equipped with a rear enclosure sometimes containing a funerary chamber with the same characteristics as the underground rooms. Among the sepulchral monuments present in the necropolis, two stand out in particular, both of the “columbarium” type. The first mausoleum, dating back to the 1st century AD, consists of a quadrangular base, built in opus latericium, housing inside a funerary chamber below street level, circular in plan, with a domed vault and side shrines originally decorated with stuccoes featuring mythological motifs and containing the ash urns; this lower structure is in turn surmounted by a cylindrical drum, adorned outside with architectural façades with a crowning cornice and internally equipped with another funerary cell, similar to the lower one and accessible by a staircase, with two rows of lateral niches. On the outside, the building presents architectural façades divided into sections outlined by pilasters and topped by cornices, and shrines on a podium with pediments. The second mausoleum, also dating to the 1st century AD, although sharing the same construction characteristics, is realized in opus reticulatum and features an internal funerary chamber with a square plan, accessible through a side door, surmounted by a domed vault and equipped on the sides with large niches to hold the cremation urns of the deceased.
Information on Necropolis C.D. of San Vito
Via San Vito
80078 Pozzuoli (Naples)
081.5266007 (Office for Archaeological Heritage of Pozzuoli)
sar-cam.pozzuoli@beniculturali.it
https://sbanap.campaniabeniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
