Knowing my way to the station of Napoli Porta Nolana, this time I only had to buy the ticket and wait for the 8:14 Circumvesuviana Line 4 to Poggiomarino, which was supposed to reach Ercolano Scavi in the town of Herculaneum [Ercolano] by 8:33. It took longer than that because there were a lot of stops. Then again, my strategy of the first station in order to travel sitting down was successful once more.
Unlike the modern city of Pompeii, the modern Ercolano was built before the ancient town was discovered. It was originally called Resina, but the name was changed in 1969. Despite the legend saying that the Greek hero Heracles (Hercules in Latin) founded the original Herculaneum, the early history of this city is parallel to that of Pompeii. It was first an Oscan settlement, then Etruscan, then Greek, and it eventually became a Roman municipium in the first century BCE. It was a small vacationing town for people from the north, apparently.
Much like Pompeii, the ancient city of Herculaneum – what today is the Parco Archeologico di Ercolano or Herculaneum Archaeological Park – was buried by the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and it belongs to the Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata Unesco World Heritage Site. However, the different location of the town changed how it fared during the eruption.
The 79 eruption lasted two days (thought to be 24th and 25th October 79 CE). The citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum who fled and survived were the ones who escaped during the first 12 hours – during these, heavy pumice and ash came down on Pompeii, destroying buildings. At this time, Pliny the Elder was commander of the Roman fleet at a nearby town, and he sent galleys to help the evacuation of the coast. We know this because his nephew, Pliny the Younger – a teenager at the time who would grow into a lawyer and magistrate – left in writing what he had seen in two letters. Those letters are now lost, but Medieval copies of them survived.
At the time of the eruption, Herculaneum stood right by the shore. Most of the bodies found were at the coastline, probably trying to escape by sea or reach Pliny’s ships. A boat was actually found carbonised in the vicinity. As wind blew pyroclastic flows towards Pompeii, burying it in volcanic ash and pumice, only a few centimetres of ash fell onto Herculaneum. These, however, rightfully freaked people out, and caused most of the population to flee during the first day.
As Herculaneum lies closer to the volcano, when the cloud of volcanic material (called a “volcanic surge”, composed by gas, ashes and pumice) collapsed in the middle of the night, it hit the town at over 400 ºC. Everyone who had stayed behind was instantly killed by the heat, leaving behind the skeletons of around 330 people. There were no casts made of them – unlike the thousand unfortunate Pompeiians.
Pliny the Elder died in the early morning of the second day. During the second day, the second pyroclastic cloud collapsed on top of Pompeii, but at this time, not a soul remained alive in Herculaneum. Subsequent volcanic clouds and pyroclastic surges (not lava) buried the towns until excavations started in the 18th century – barring some grave robbers, apparently.
About one fourth of Herculaneum has been unburied, even if it was the first city to be discovered. There is a bit of a paradox here – although it is in better condition and it suffered less structural damage, it is worse preserved. It still holds a lot of mosaics in situ, despite many frescoes taken to the Archaeological Museum. Unfortunately, its current condition has deteriorated terribly.
Herculaneum is less famous than Pompeii. A much smaller area can be visited, and the unexcavated part is underneath the modern cities of Ercolano and Portici. There are many buildings closed and a lot of scaffolding is needed due to a period or abandonment at the end of the 1990s. One of the telltales that it expects fewer tourists is that the webpage is only in Italian.
I reached the station Ercolano Scavi around 8:45, and ten minutes later I was at the entrance of Parco Archeologico di Ercolano. The park was already open and there was a line to buy tickets, and people struggling with their phone passes. I had printed mine out, so it was stupidly easy to wave it, get it scanned, and go through. Most people who went in before me decided to stay at the museums because that is the first thing you reach, but I reasoned that the earliest I went into the archaeological area, the less time I’d be under the sun when it became scorching. Again, this helped to be alone in a couple of houses.
Restoration is a race against time in Herculaneum and as you walk you can see the scaffoldings and workers going on their daily lives – archaeologists, restorers, gardeners. Here, the effect of the volcanic activity are seen extremely clearly, on the floors and the walls – bulging mosaics and cracked frescoes and tiles. There is no doubt, however, that the damage was less. There are columns that still stand, covered in their original paint, and the bathhouses could just be used today with some refurbishing – and of course running water.
Another phenomenon that happened in Herculaneum was that a lot of wood became instantly charcoal when the pyroclastic surge collapsed onto the town. That means that some of the beams that are still in the buildings are the original ones, which is unbelievable. There are even surviving stairs and furniture. I wandered the streets for a few hours, going into anything that was open and in general feeling in awe at the mosaics and the frescoes. I was also astonished as how people felt comfortable poking the slabs and the paint – as there were fewer caretakers than in Pompeii.
Some highlights included:
– Terme Maschili or Male Baths, where you can see the wavy mosaic on the floors.
– The mosaics in Casa di Nettuno e Anfitrite or House of Neptune and Amphitrite.
– Casa del Rilievo di Telefo or House of the Relief of Telephus, one of the best preserved structures with a lot of paintings, even on the columns.
– Terrazza, statua e altare di Marco Nonio Balbo or Terrace, statue and altar of Marcus Nonius Balbus.
It was noon when I decided to retreat towards the museums, which hold only small trinkets and some jewellery. Just as I was thinking that the Herculaneum inhabitants could rest in peace instead of being on display, I reached the Boat Pavilion Padiglione della Barca, which holds a carbonised boat where some of the residents tried to escape. There are panels which explain that they are planning to make copies of the three hundred something skeletons they found at the coastline and place them in the same spot they were found. So much for resting in peace.
I went back towards the station and took a train back to Napoli, where I transferred to the underground and headed off to the National Archaeological Museum – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN). I had read online that the ticket was valid for two days, so the plan was to grab a leisure lunch there, wander around for a while in the air-conditioned areas of the museum, then come back the following day. Unfortunately, the ticket read that it was only valid for one admission that day. I had to reconsider my plan then. It was barely 13:30, so I decided to go right into it. Also… there was no air-con.
The roots of the MANN are the so-called Collezione Farnese, or Farnese Collection, one of the first collections of the Greco-Roman Antiquity. The original collector was Pope Paul III when he was still Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1568 – 1549). In the 18th century, the marbles were inherited by Elizabeth Farnese. Her son Charles would become King of Naples, Sicily and Spain, and was the great sponsor of the excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii. The mosaics and frescoes taken from these two cities are the second core conforming the museum.
The Farnese Marbles are fantastic. It’s been a while since a work of art took my breath away, but some of these did. The collection preserved a lot of Roman copies of Greek original sculptures, and although a lot of them were restored during the Renaissance, I enjoyed the gallery a lot. Some favourites were the Resting Hercules, Atlas, Apollo playing the lire, and of course the Farnese Bull.
The Hercules sculpture shows the hero leaning on his club after having finished the last of his tasks – the apples of the Hesperides garden, which he holds behind his back. Atlas kneels, holding the world. The Farnese Bull is the biggest surviving sculptural group from antiquity – the twin brothers who founded Thebes, Zethus and Amphion, tie their stepmother Dirce to the horns of a wild bull as revenge for how she tormented their mother. The original is attributed to Appollonius of Tralles. Apollo playing the lire is sculpted in two marbles, one darker for the tunic and a white one for skin and the lire – and one of the few sculptures I can share on social media as he is totally clothed…
After the Farnese marbles, I explored the rest of the classical sculptures. Then I moved onto the second floor to the collection of mosaics from Pompeii and Herculaneum. When I was little I saw a mosaic of fish in my history book, and I had always wanted to see it. I finally did, along with one that implies “beware of the dog”. I did not get to see the Alexander the Great mosaic because it was being restored (though I did see the in-situ reproduction in the Casa del Fauno / House of the Faun). There was even a whole fountain with columns that were almost completely covered in mosaics.
At the end of this area stands the “Secret Cabinet”, which holds the images and sculptures from Pompeii and Herculaneum that were over the centuries considered “too pornographic to be seen” – including penis amulets and a sculpture of “Pan making love to a goat”.
I continued on to the second floor, to “Archaeological Naples”. In this area there also were sculptures, a lot of bronzes too – including a beautiful Athena and a Drunk Faun. The central hall of this floor held an exhibit about Alexander the Great and his influence in the Mediterranean. It hosted the Farnese Atlas and the Artemis of Ephesus. Afterwards, I went to the Protohistory and Prehistory area – which did not hold many attention-grabbing artefacts, especially consider how spectacular everything else was.
By this time, I needed a break. It was a bit later than 15:00 so the café was practicable. I got myself a lemon sorbet and… fried pasta pasta frittata, a typical street food bite. Which is basically a croquette made out of pasta. It was surprisingly good, actually.
I went back upstairs – I was tired by now, and if I had had the chance to do the museum in two days, I would have left now. But I did not, so I continued towards the exhibitions of “everyday life” and frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum. These include dishware, glassware, decoration, mirrors, jewellery… and of course the frescoes, including the Portrait of Terentius Neo and his Wife, that were taken down from the walls of the houses during the 18th century in order to preserve them. They feel weird as they hang on the blank walls – framed, far away from the place they used to be. I know it can’t be, but it would be cool to see them all on site. While I could really imagine how some of the houses would have looked 2,000 years ago when I was in Pompeii, I could not imagine the perfectly-framed frescoes on the walls. It was a bit unsettling.
I bought the extra ticket to see the Magna Graecia Collection. At first I was not convinced because after a while all the Greek pottery starts looking the same to me. You get to wear shoe coverings in order to walk in there, at first I thought it was not to upset the marble floors, but then I walked onto the mosaics and wow. Just wow. I mean… after a bit you don’t even realise that you’re supposed to be looking at pottery and just keep staring at the floors…
I ended the visit with the Egyptian collection, where – on top of it being the only area of the museum with air conditioning – I saw one of the crocodile mummies that I might have seen at Kom Ombo.Finally, after basically snooping round the whole museum including the gardens, I headed back to the station area to buy some food and go get some rest in the hotel.
For the sake of completion, here is a relation of all the spots I visited in Parco Archeologico di Ercolano or Archaeological Park of Herculaneum:
Boathouse and shoreline
Access bridge
Casa dello Scheletro or House of the Skeleton
Casa dei Galba or House of Galba
Terme Maschili or Male Baths
Casa dei Due Atri or House of the two atriums
Sede degli Augustali or Hall of the Augustales
Casa dei Salone Nero or House of the black salon
Bottega del Plumbarius or Shop of a plumbarius (metal worker, welder or blacksmith)
Casa del Bel Cortile or House of the Beautiful Courtyard
Casa di Nettuno e Anfitrite or House of Neptune and Amphitrite
Terme Femminili or Female Baths
Casa Sannitica or Samnite House
Casa del Tramezzo di Legno or House of the Wooden Screen
Casa del Papiro Dipinto or House with the painted papyrus roll
Casa dell’Alcova or House of the Alcove
Casa dell’Erma di Bronzo or House of the Bronze Herm
Casa dell’Ara Laterizia or House of the Brick Altar
Casa dell’Atrio a Mosaico or House of Mosaic atrium
Casa dell’Albergo or House of the Inn
Casa del Telaio or House of the Tailor
Casa del Mobilio Carbonizato or House of the Wooden Furniture
Casa dell’Apollo Citaredo or House of Apollo the Lyre-player
Casa del Bicentenario or House of the Bicentenary
Pistrinum di Sextus Patulcius Felix or Bakery of Sextus Patulcius Felix
Taberna di Priapo or Bar of Priapus
Casa della Stoffa or House of the Cloth
Casa dei Cervi or House of the Deer
Palaestra
Casa del Rilievo di Telefo or House of the Relief of Telephus
Terrazza, statua e altare di Marco Nonio Balbo or Terrace, statue and altar of Marcus Nonius Balbus
Terme Suburbane or Suburban baths
Area Sacra or Holy Area
Sacello di Venere or Shrine of Venus
Grande Taberna or Large bar
Casa del Gran Portale or House of Large Portal
Thermopolium (food shop)
Casa di Aristide or House of Aristides
Antiquarium (museum)
Padiglione della Barca or Boat Pavillion
JBinnacle – A Travel Logbook 