Fontanelle Cemetery – Naples

Fontanelle Cemetery – Naples

Fontanelle Cemetery, located on Fontanelle Street in the city of Naples, owes its name to the presence of water sources dating back to ancient times. Some 40,000 remains of people are preserved inside the necropolis, including victims of the great plague of 1656 and the cholera of 1836.

This ancient ossuary is located at the western end of the natural valley of Sanità, one of the most historic and traditional neighborhoods of Naples, just outside the Greco-Roman city.

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Historical Background

This ‘area was chosen in the past as a site for a pagan necropolis and later for Christian cemeteries. For at least four centuries, the site has housed the remains of those who could not afford a dignified burial and, above all, the victims of the epidemics that have struck the city several times throughout history.

The cemetery was founded only in 1872, following decisions made by the Neapolitan ecclesiastical hierarchy, in particular Archbishop Riario Sforza and Canon of the cathedral, Gaetano Barbati , during the clash between the secular and Catholic worlds after the end of the temporal power of the Popes.

The cemetery is dug into the yellow tuffaceous rock of Materdei Hill. It consists of three wide tunnels with a trapezoidal section, oriented in a north-south direction. These galleries vary in height between 10 and 15 meters and extend for about a hundred meters, connected by side corridors. The majestic dimensions of these galleries make them look like the aisles of a basilica. In the 1930s, in a dreamlike crescendo, the cemetery is central to the cult of the souls in Purgatory in Naples and symbol of the archaic nature that characterises the Neapolitans’ relationship with death. 

The Second Vatican Council drastically reduced the importance of devotionalism. The worship of anonymous remains was already insignificant in reality, but it was overcome with the closure of the hypogea, with a decree of Archbishop Corrado Ursi on 29 July 1969. There are many legends that permeate the ancient naves of the Fontanelle Cemetery. Some are inspired by the Bible, others by modern myths. Actually, the Cemetery is a sacred place and a cultural asset in search of a new identity between anthropology and history, between faith and tourism. It needs a multidimensional and broad vision. Yet, it is owned by the Municipality of Naples with the church is present more for its social management than to give it a more complete religious identity and address all those religious questions, posed by both its history and the manifestation of singular phenomena of “do-it-yourself” religiosity linked to dark tourism. 

The Fontanelle Cemetery is temporarily closed for extraordinary maintenance work, but once reopene, it will be managed through a Special Public Private Partners by the Social Cooperative “La Paranza”, which currently manages the Catacombs

Location

SOME INSIGHTS

Context and Challenges

Closed for structural works 

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Closed for structural works

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Issues addressed (abandonment, accessibility, limited awareness, etc.): Management; Public-Private Partnership

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Reasons for activating the living lab: Difficult dialogue between Municipality (owner of the site) and local community and devotional groups; Technical gaps and absence of transparency in the decision-making

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Living Lab and Community Engagement

The Municipality, making use of the regulations governing public-private partnerships contained in the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape, wanted to ensure the conservation of the site and promote its public use and enhancement. This idea was a concrete and mature need that the local community had expressed since 2010 with a peaceful occupation and which, subsequently, in 2016 had led to a memorandum of understanding between the Municipality of Naples and the Parish of Santa Maria del Carmine alle Fontanelle, signed by the then mayor Luigi de Magistris and the then parish priest Don Giuseppe Rinaldi. For about three years, the municipal services had been conducting an internal process to develop a strategy for enhancing the cemetery. In 2019 they asked to U4V to help them define, also from a technical point of view, a public-private partnership that would be able to sustainably manage the only Neapolitan religious underground site under their direct responsibility. The purpose of the living lab, designed to test the STP and active between October 2019 and March 2020, went beyond technical support and aimed rather to become a meeting point for clarification and reflection between experts, municipal services, stakeholders and the local community.  

  • Stakeholders involved (institutions, citizens, associations, experts, etc.): Comune di Napoli: various municipal departments (Territorial Protection, Culture, Subsoil, Tourism, Hydrogeological Protection); Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) researchers and international experts (e.g. Juan Valle Robles); Fondazione di Comunità San Gennaro,  Terza Municipalità di Napoli (neighbourhood authorities); Cooperativa La Paranza, tasked with operational site management; Technical experts (e.g. Gianluca Minin from Galleria Borbonica), and local cultural/heritage associations (e.g. IRIS – Istituto di Ricerca e documentazione sul lavoro e sulla religiosità a Napoli); Community voices and civil society figures (e.g. Alex Zanotelli, Rocco Civitelli).
  • Activities and tools used (workshops, co-design, digital technologies, etc.): Living Lab Process to valorise the Cimitero delle Fontanelle
  • First meeting (Nov 2019) – Stakeholder dialogue to identify critical issues, build trust, and collect ideas via post-its; followed by cluster analysis (management model, valorisation model, general approach, safety). 
  • Second meeting (Nov 2019) – Definition of activities, responsibilities, and resources. Focus on site safety, maintenance roles, and operational planning.
  • Third meeting (Dec 2019) – Drafting and technical discussion of the partnership agreement, integrating previous results.
  • Public workshop “Naples: Two Success Stories and a Living Lab for Underground Built Heritage” (Feb 2020, at Castel dell’Ovo), aiming to formalise the agreement and promote underground heritage with local/international stakeholders.
  • Critical reflection during COVID-19 lockdown on gaps (especially cultural/spiritual aspects and broader community involvement).
  • Inclusion of new cultural voices (e.g. IRIS association, local historians, volunteers).
  • Change in municipal administration and shift toward a new public-private partnership model.
  • Final outcome (2023): the Municipality approved a Partnership Agreement with La Paranza for the site’s cultural valorisation.

Results and Impact

  • Benefits for cultural heritage and the local community: The Living Lab has refocused attention on the Fontanelle Cemetery as a complex cultural asset that cannot be reduced to a mere tourist attraction. It has stimulated a change in perspective: from an abandoned and marginalised place to a cultural, educational and identity resource, promoting maintenance, safety and cultural reuse. It has initiated a dialogue between public institutions, third sector organisations and the local community, improving mutual trust and increasing the visibility of initiatives already active in the Rione Sanità district. It has fostered new opportunities for young people and local associations, offering a symbolic space where they can experiment with forms of active citizenship and cooperation. 
  • New narratives and interpretative practices that emerged: The experience helped shift the narrative of the site from a “place of death” to a “place of shared memory and knowledge”, making its spiritual, historical and anthropological value more visible. Participatory interpretative practices emerged, based on oral histories, family micro-memories and local knowledge, which enriched and nuanced the “official” historical reading of the site.  A multi-level vision of heritage has developed, integrating cultural, religious, educational, artistic and socio-economic dimensions, strengthening the community’s sense of belonging.
  • Lessons learned and potential replicability in other contexts: The main lesson learned was the importance of thorough preparation, with comprehensive and inclusive stakeholder mapping before embarking on co-creation processes. The diversity of viewpoints proved decisive: without pluralistic voices, the process risks becoming crystallised around management and tourism logic, neglecting spiritual, cultural and scientific values. The need emerged to create safe and transparent environments for discussion, in which representatives of the local community are involved in a continuous and recognised manner. This approach can be replicated in other complex urban contexts, provided that the initial listening and inclusion phase is not skipped and that a balance between economic interests and identity values is ensured over time.

Multimedia Materials and Resources
  • Related projects: COST Action CA18110 Underground4value 
  • Videos/documentaries

Il Rione Sanità e il Cimitero delle Fontanelle Book promo https://youtu.be/KqFscBYwvMI

The Fontanelle Cemetery in Naples: a U4V Case Study (video: Directed and produced by Mehemet Olcay Aydemir, Bahanur Nasya interviews Giuseppe Pace, researcher of the Institute for Research on Innovation and Service for Development of the Italian National Research Council and Underground4value Action Chair. He tells us the story of the Fontanelle Cemetery Living Lab and introduces the future challenges.) https://youtu.be/r_ujkBrtl1o

  • Links to additional resources: 

https://www.comune.napoli.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/EN/IDPagina/4880

https://services.harpaceas.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/I13_The-Fontanelle-Cemetery-Between-legend-and-reality.pdf

Fontanelle Cemetery

https://raccontandolacampania.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/a-spasso-nel-purgatorio-le-capuzzelle-di-napoli/ Contacts for further information: giuseppe.pace@cnr.it

Photographic and Iconographic Documentation
  • Historical and current photos of the site

https://www.europeana.eu/it/item/224/A_C_oai_Archive_xml_992

  • Maps and illustrations

https://www.vadoanapoli.it/?attachment_id=1571

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Ffigure%2FPlan-view-of-the-Cimitero-delle-Fontanelle-and-location-of-borehole-ERT-and-GPR-surveys_fig3_265206527&psig=AOvVaw0ySyHyCbhS6u-zvjxK2TTe&ust=1757694950590000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBUQjRxqFwoTCICIvZSS0Y8DFQAAAAAdAAAAABAm

Links and Social Media Sharing

Recommended hashtags: #UndergroundBuiltHeritage #UBH #LivingLabs #CulturalValorisation #U4V #Underground4Value #StrategicTransitionPractice #STP

Contact us to receive more details

Interested in this heritage site? Get in touch with our team to receive more details about the living lab, its research, and the activities you can take part in.

We will be happy to answer your questions and tell you more about how to get involved.

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