Parco Vergiliano - Tomba di Virgilio, Naples

Parco Vergiliano is a small public park whose main monument is the tomb traditionally associated with the poet Virgil. Its setting is beside the Roman passage known as the Neapolitan Crypt, near Santa Maria di Piedigrotta and across from Mergellina railway station. The tomb has a square base carrying a round upper chamber, built in Roman masonry and reached by a short stairway.

Inside, the chamber has a barrel-vaulted roof, three openings for light, and ten recesses once intended for funerary urns. The monument now seems to cling to the rock above the passage because the ground level has changed since Roman times. Local tradition also gives Virgil a magical role: as a sorcerer, he is said to have created the tunnel by supernatural power.

In reality, the tunnel was probably engineered by Lucius Cocceius Auctus, who also built the nearby Seiano Grotto and fortifications at Baia. The park contains another poet’s grave as well: Giacomo Leopardi died in Naples in 1837, and his authenticated tomb stands here. Look at the stone inscription beside Virgil’s monument: placed in 1554, it wittily questions whether these really are the poet’s ashes, turning the site’s ancient mystery into part of the monument itself.