Tag: Herculaneum

  • Herculaneum

    It was on the afternoon of August 24th 79 AD when an enormus eruption of Vesuvius buried several cities including  Herculaneum for centuries until the first major excavation in 1738. The diggins and findings in (modern) Ercolaneo and Pompeii initialized the Neoclassicism in Europe – motifs from the roman sites began to appear on furniture, wall paintings and teacups. Naples and the area around Vesuvius were put on the map of the european traveller and became part of the “Grand Tour”.

    herculaneum. italy, vesuvius, romans, ancient, history herculaneum. italy, vesuvius, romans, ancient, historyHerculaneum was probably of greek origin dedicated to the greek god Hercules and was used as a trading post. In 89 BC the town became a Roman municipium (town) until being buried under 20 metres of ash on that August afternoon in 79 AD. About 75% of Herculaneum are still buried today.

    herculaneum. italy, vesuvius, romans, ancient, historyUntil the discovery of about 300 skeletons in the boathouses (picture above) it was believed almost all citizens had managed to escape into the sea.

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    Take a walk on the old roman streets and dive into another time – there weren´t that many visitors and it almost became easy to image how life must have been 2000 years ago.

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    Merken

  • Sunday with the Old Romans

    Sunday is the day for little Landpartien (trips out of the city) and so I spend some hours at Herculaneum – one of five cities which were buried by Vesuvius big eruption in 79AD.

    Unlike Pompeii, the deep pyroclastic material which covered it preserved wooden and other organic-based objects such as roofs, beds, doors, food and even some 300 skeletons which were surprisingly discovered in recent years along the sea shore as it was thought until then that the town had been evacuated by the inhabitants. (Wikipedia)

    Pompeii was a port – Heculaneum was a wealthier city with lots of fine houses and baths and I especially felt in love with all those beautiful mosaic floors!

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    Herculaneum is easy to reach with the Circumvesuviana line (train between Naples and Sorrento, there is even an express train in the summer month. I took the normal one, it´s an about 20min ride.) and only a short walk from the trainstation.

    I chose this site because it is smaller and one doesn´t neet that much time as in Pompeii and I wanted to do a trek on Vesuvius later on, but as the weather wasn´t good enough, I went back to Naples, ate some “Caffé dell nonno” granite (so good!) and did a tour underground.