Gonzalo Sanchez |
Pozzuoli (Italy) (EFE).- The sea of Naples (south) hides an archaeological treasure in its depths: the remains of the ancient Baia, two millennia ago a vacation destination for the most powerful Romans but whose villas, baths and mosaics ended up under the water by a slow and inexorable volcanic phenomenon. To the present day.
The history of Baia is reminiscent of the mythical Atlantis, a beautiful and lavish city engulfed by the sea, but in this case the remains of its past glory are clearly visible five meters below the waves that bathe Pozzuoli, even if to do so you have to dress in coverall.
“These structures need constant attention. We are talking about the largest submerged site in the world in a delicate context” due to the sea and volcanic activity, the director of the Campos Phlegreos Park, Fabio Pagano, told EFE.
At “dolce vita” in Baia
At the end of the republican era of Rome, in the 1st century BC, Baia or Bayas was one of the favorite vacation enclaves of the patricians, erected in the crater of a terrain of intense volcanic activity that the Greeks baptized as “phlegreus” (burning ).
Facing the fearsome Vesuvius volcano that devastated Pompeii in AD 79, the place attracted aristocrats for its “two souls”: Baia was irrigated by precious thermal waters and a benevolent climate, while Pozzuoli was one of the most prosperous ports in the “ Mare Nostrum”.
“It was the land of the ‘Dolce Vita’”, sums up Pagano.
There was no illustrious person in that “caput mundi” Rome without a palace in this place, from Julius Caesar, to Cicero, Nero or the emperor-philosopher Hadrian, who died precisely in this city.
When the earth sank in Baia
However, in the middle of the 4th century AD, the inhabitants of those mansions “on the beachfront” began to notice that, for some reason, the ground was sinking and the sea was advancing.
Baia actually suffered from “bradysism”, a phenomenon typical of volcanic areas that causes the height of the ground to vary depending on the magma that accumulates in its depths, as if the earth swelled and contracted in an ancient breath.
This inexorable sinking forced the patricians to abandon their properties, which, by the time “bradysism” stopped, around the year 650 AD, already lay at the bottom of the sea.
The area, some five hundred meters from the coast, is currently protected to prevent the transit of ships and can only be accessed by a few companies authorized to practice scuba diving among the ruins, such as SuBaia, which accompanies EFE on this tour.
A walk under the sea
Once underwater, the first building to appear among the seaweed is an old villa that immediately demonstrates its magnificence with a long, almost intact mosaic decorated with fish, curiously the same ones that now swarm over it.
The place still conserves part of its walls, colonized by corals, as well as marble pavements, columns and the remains of the pipes of what were once some hot springs.
The sand covers most of the mosaics, as this is the only way they can be protected from bacteria, but a few strokes later another huge one appears on the ground, like a carpet of black and white tiles and circular shapes on the bottom of the sea.
The only mosaic representing human figures was discovered a few years ago and embellished a thermal complex: on its pavement, two men fight eternally, now under the waves.
This journey through time also stops at the Ninfeo de Claudio, full of statues, and at the villa of one of the most influential families, the Pisons. Although many other pieces are guarded in museums such as the Aragonese Castle that crowns the bay.
The volcano that does not stop
The Baia Submerged Park, which began to be discovered in 1969 due to the discovery of two sculptures, is an exceptional site that, due to its situation, requires constant control of the telluric movements that continue to take shape in its subsoil.
Just think that the Phlegrean Fields are made up of 24 volcanoes, many submarines and extremely active.
But, paradoxically, the phenomenon that flooded Baia could one day make it resurface is in an ascendant phase. “The earth is rising, in less than ten years it grew one meter,” says Pagano.
Meanwhile, Baia, “the most pleasant and splendid city in the world” in the words of Horace, will continue to surprise those who plunge into its past, always at the mercy of the whims of the “burning” land that saw its birth and decreed its end. .