Galleria Borbonica Entrance Ticket: Standard Route

Visit: Galleria Borbonica, Vico del Grottone 4 Zona Piazza Plebiscito, 80132, Naples Italy

Galleria Borbonica is situated in Vico del Grottone 4, 100 meters from Plebiscito Square. Until a few years ago it was a veterinary laboratory, now this is the entrance of the Bourbon Tunnel. A staircase with 8 ramps, 33 yards deep descending into the belly of the Chiaia district in Naples. The second entry is in Via Domenico Morelli 40, through the crosswalk of 'Quick parking'.

The Bourbon Tunnel was built in 1853 by Ferdinand II of Bourbon, who, concerned about the outbreak of a rebellion, asked for an escape from the Royal Palace to the barrack in Via della Pace, now Via Morelli. The work was however not completed and, during the second World War, the Tunnel was used by residents of the area as a military hospital, later becoming the Hall Judicial Deposit.The war left its mark even in the subsoil. 

Along the tunnel there are evidences that will allow you to discover history of real life. You will have the chance to visit a World War II air bomb shelter, built in these underground spaces, where a lot of authentic objects of the time have been found. The Tunnel had hand writings, folding beds, messages of wish and desolation left by those who lived it, and maintain its memory. You can see the network of tunnels and cisterns of the seventeenth-century, large buildings where the 'Pozzari' worked, the only connoisseurs of the Naples underground. The sight is stunning, but that's not all. In Via Morelli, there are statues dating back to the Fascist period and many cars and motorcycles, abandoned for years, freed from piles of rubbish, arranged and illuminated especially for the route.

Nothing in the Tunnel is left to chance, even lighting, perfectly integrated with the visitor's path. Today everything is possible to visit in this Tunnel with its precious evidence uncovered five years ago after years of rubbish, degradation and waste of all kinds that covered the reliquaries.