The underground cavern-air raid shelter on Via Cimarosa

A week or so ago, we presented two reports on the cave-in of a sidewalk on via Cimarosa in the Vomero section of Naples, Italy, and expressed hope that we would be able to do a survey of the cavity beneath the cave in. Such a cavity had been reported over the years to have been a WW II air raid shelter, but was never verified. Well, we have been able to get the first photographs of this partially completed air raid shelter.

The upper part of the long stairway down into the quarried caverns below, has two distinct partial cave-ins, while the lower section is in good condition. The cavity, carved out from the tufo sandstone, shows the floor to be covered by sizeable amounts of rubble and debris, while the tufo of the walls appears to be solid and intact with the exception of some seepage from sewerage.




The sidewalk cave-in seen from inside the cavity



Partial cave-in of the access stairway



Lower part of the stairway



Debris accumulated on the floor of the cavity



Infiltration and seepage from the ceiling



The upper chamber



The ceiling of the upper chamber



A corridor in the air raid shelter . . . note insulators on the ceiling for electrical wiring


If you are enrolled, you can see all the photographs to this link in our cavity database at C0751

Original Article

Original Article follow up


Translation - Larry Ray