In the Sanità district, Palazzo di Donato hides the most precious treasure of “Napoli Sotterranea”, four Greek tombs from the end of the 4th century b.C. perfectly preserved, the discovery of which is a modern fairy tale orchestrated by divine fate.

A Greek burial memorial remained hidden for 2300 years, until in 1889 Baron Giovanni di Donato had the idea of digging in the cellar of his palace to look for a source of water. Lowering himself with a rope, to his extreme amazement he instead discovered four finely decorated Hellenic tombs, among the most beautiful of the ancient world that have survived intact to us.

The family and the inhabitants of the neighborhood protected this sacred site for over 130 years until the descendants of the Baron of Donato left it as a legacy to his nephew Giampiero Martuscelli who, together with his wife Alessandra Calise and their children Paolo and Sara, started a restoration process that saw the fulfillment of their dream in 2022, when the site was reopened to the public.

Our mission is to bring beauty to the world and get passionate about Greek art an increasingly wider audience.

(Alessandra Calise Martuscelli)

Curiously, the archaeological site remains private property as its discovery predates the 1942 law according to which “Things of historical, archaeological, paleontological and artistic interest are part of the unavailable heritage of the State, by anyone and in whatever way you find underground…”.

An ambitious project that was made possible thanks to the passion and determination of Alessandra who managed to get help from various institutions and private individuals to find the funds necessary for the restoration of the Hypogeum, which took place under the supervision and scientific coordination of the Superintendence Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Municipality of Naples, in collaboration with the Central Institute for Restoration of Rome.

The history of the Ipoegeo dei Cristallini begins in the 4th century b.C. when the area was used as a necropolis by the Greeks who inhabited the city of Neapolis, then part of Magna Graecia. Various funerary complexes were built here, including the four “Crystalline” tombs, once accessible from street level, as can be seen in the beautiful video located at the entrance to the archaeological site, a reconstruction of how the tombs appeared at the time of their realization.

In particular, the third hypogeum, today 11 meters below sea level which is accessed via a suggestive staircase carved into the stone, is the most finely decorated environment, of which it is still possible to admire the original paintings and the wonderful bas-reliefs. Like the garlands on the walls and the splendid sarcophagi-beds dug into the tuff with mattresses and double cushions sculpted and painted in yellow, purple, blue and red which make it the most important pictorial testimony of ancient Greece in Italy.

Among the decorations, the head of Medusa found in the lunette on the back wall and the group dedicated to Dionysus and Ariadne are striking, a scene full of symbolic implications which has also become the logo of the site.

The opening to the public of the Ipogeo dei Cristallini represented a fundamental step in the social relaunch of the Sanità district, today one of the liveliest districts, also on a cultural level, of Naples, and represents a fundamental step in understanding the Hellenic origins of the city.

The Secret

In addition to the tombs, Baron di Donato also found the funerary objects, over 700 pieces preserved today by the Martuscelli family and today partly set up in the MANN which tells the story of Magna Graecia and the history of Ancient Neapolis in the Ancient Naples section.

Useful Info

Ipogeo dei Cristallini
Via dei Cristallini 133
80137 Napoli
Tel. +39 344 0725752

Standard entrance: 10 euro
Entrance plus guided tour: 18 euro
For other rates, consult the Ipogeo website