The restoration of a “unique treasure in the world” presented.
“Under the Rione Sanità, a unique treasure in the world”: the Ipogeo dei Cristallini, a rare testimony of Hellenic painting and architecture in the heart of Naples, was presented today during a conference in Paris, the capital of France united by deep ties with the city of Partenope.
Opened to the public in July 2022, after a restoration project strongly desired by the Martuscelli family, owners of the Hypogeum, the complex offers the opportunity to live a memorable cultural experience, which aims to enhance the ancient Greek heritage of Naples.
“I came here to tell you that there is a unique place in the world,” said the director of the site, Alessandra Calise Martuscelli, illustrating to the Parisian public the rebirth of the Hypogeum that remained secret and inaccessible for centuries. With the opening to the public, she added, it is now possible to travel back in time 2.300 years, by slipping into a small staircase inside the Donato building, in via dei Cristallini 133, in the Stella district.
The restoration gives the public back the vision of this ancient burial ground discovered in 1889 by the baron of Donato, during research in the subsoil of his ancestral palace. The baron was actually looking for a source of water and instead found one of the most extraordinary ancestral sources of the ancient world. Four burial grounds from the end of the XNUMXth and beginning of the XNUMXrd century BC that represent some of the few examples of painting and architecture of Magna Graecia in the world.
Places that have always been closed to the public, looked after by the baron first, and then by the Martuscelli family, who have now inherited that “treasure”. And it was Giampiero Martuscelli himself with Alessandra and his children Paolo and Sara – all present today at the conference organized in the Parisian home of the chef, ambassador of the Italian lifestyle in the world, Eleonora Galasso – who decided that the time had come to offer that treasure chest of art and history to the city.
“To convince us – says Alessandra – he was an archaeologist. He had asked us to visit the Hypogeum. After entering the most beautiful of the four rooms, with surprising spontaneity, he exclaimed: 'Mamma mia, how beautiful, I would like to live here!' That was the moment when we realized that the time had come to take care of this place that had been closed for too long”.
The opening and enhancement of the site also aims to add a fundamental piece to the recovery operation of the Sanità district, the object of an uncommon effort of urban, social and economic renewal. A fervor that is based on the example of Greek culture, which in this part of the city was particularly active in every form of expression and art, influencing social life in a profound and lasting way. In Paris there was also Emanuele, a young and brilliant guide of the Ipogeo, born and raised in the Sanità district and who in perfect French explained how this project is also a wonderful opportunity for redemption for the neighborhood.
The restoration project is partly financed by European funds (Campania Region) and was carried out under the high surveillance and scientific coordination of the Archaeological Superintendence of the Municipality of Naples, in collaboration with the Central Institute for Restoration (Icr) of Rome. To visit it, online booking is required. Visits last approximately 45 minutes for a maximum number of 10 people at a time.
Article published on May 31, 2023 - 18:40 pm
