For the awards they have received and their artistic spectacularity, the Toledo and Chiaia metro stations, part of the Metro Art Napoli – Le Stazioni dell’Arte project, are defined as the most beautiful in the world.
Metro Art Napoli – Le Stazioni dell’Arte, inaugurated in 2001, was born from an idea by the municipal administration with the artistic direction of Achille Bonito Oliva, from Campania, one of the most important contemporary art historians and curators who revolutionized the world of criticism, giving life to the artistic movement of Transavanguardia.
The project has seen the redevelopment, so far, of the stations of Line 1 and Line 6, in particular the beautiful Chiaia and Toledo, by international architects and designers and then decorated with over 250 works of art, almost all site specific.
The Metro Art Napoli – Le Stazioni dell’Arte project is a widespread museum that enhances the urban areas of Naples near its main subways, so beautiful and engaging that it has become one of the most visited cultural attractions in the city.
The latest, inaugurated in 2024, is the Chiaia Station, designed by Uberto Siola, a Neapolitan architect and full professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Federico II University of Naples, which connects two different levels of the city.
The main artistic installation is the work of Peter Greenaway, a British director and artist, who created a work designed to take passengers on a mythological journey, designed to symbolize the kingdom of Neptune, the god of the sea.
From Piazza Santa Maria degli Angeli, the rooms are colored in white and blue and you then reach the Art Gallery where some reproductions of statues from the Farnese collection are exhibited, the originals of which are preserved at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.
On the atrium there is the inscription “Est in aqua dulci non invidiosa voluptas” by Ovid which refers to the beauty and pleasure of water and its non-envious nature.
The descent ends at the level of the platforms colored in fire red to represent Hades, the kingdom of Pluto, and dominated by the great dome with a hundred eyes: it is the disturbing gaze of the god of the underworld who observes the travelers getting on and off the trains.
After Chiaia, you reach the Toledo Station, inaugurated in 2012, designed by Oscar Tusquets Blanc, a Spanish architect, painter and designer, which fits into the historical environmental context of the Spanish Quarters of Naples.
As soon as you enter the metro, a mosaic, placed entirely on the entrance wall, represents, with figures inspired by the history of Naples, a procession led, thanks to the power of music, by San Gennaro, a work by William Kentridge, a South African artist, famous for his drawings and engravings.
When you reach the escalators of the station, built half below sea level, the covering with 1×1 mosaic tiles with different shades of blue, from the lightest to the darkest, is striking, to give passengers the emotion of being in the depths of the sea.
The heart of the installation is the wonderful Crater de luz by Oscar Tusquets Blanca, a large luminous cone that deeply penetrates all the levels of the station, connecting the street level with the spectacular hall, the “submerged room” that is 40 meters below.
On it, there is the work Relative light by Robert Wilson, an American experimental stage director, sculptor, painter, and performer: 144 full-color LEDs, programmed on the chromatic range of blues, which create suggestive and variable luminous “harmonies”.
In the corridor that leads to the platform level and connects the exit to Piazzetta Montecalvario, there is another engaging installation, also by Robert Wilson, composed of two long LED light-boxes that reproduce the image of a sea just rippled by the continuous movement of the waves.
It is recommended to start the visit of the subway from the Chiaia stop, Line 6 with trains until about 3 pm, then continue with Line 1 and exit at Toledo, Line 1 with trains until about 11 pm.
The Secret
During the excavation works in Chiaia, archaeological finds belonging to the ploughed soil of the Paleolithic and walls from the Aragonese era emerged which were restored and incorporated into the station itself.
