Pompei

The famous eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, 79 AD caused the destruction of Pompeii and a large...

The famous eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, 79 AD caused the destruction of Pompeii and a large area of the current area of Vesuvius, such as the cities of Herculaneum, Stabia and Oplonti.

The city was buried by a thick layer of ash and lapilli. We had news of those terrible events through the writings of Pliny the Younger in two letters to Tacitus in which he recounts the dramatic death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, author of the Historia Naturalis, who died in an attempt to bring relief to the population affected by the terrible calamity.

Even more stringent evidence of that calamity is handed down to us through the archaeological excavations of Pompeii whose remains, buried by the eruption, have been preserved almost intact to this day. The excavations have brought to light a great quantity of finds of very high value. Already since the end of the sixteenth century were found archaeological finds of the ancient city of Pompeii.

In 1748 during the reign of Charles III of Spain began in a systematic way the first excavation campaigns with a work that continues to this day. Today the excavations of Pompeii represent the third most visited state museum site in Italy, surpassed only by the Pantheon and Colosseum with the Roman Forum. Moreover, the archaeological park of Pompeii has become part, together with the excavations of Herculaneum and Oplonti, of the UNESCO heritage.