LA NEAPOLIS SOTTERRATA

The square outside the church (Piazza San Gaetano) is now bisected by the decuman of Via dei Tribunali. On the northern side of the square, where the Church of San Paolo Maggiore stands, there was the Dioscuri temple and, at its back, a bit further to the north, the great open-air theatre and the odeon (indoor theatre). The southern side, which partly corresponds to the archeological area of San Lorenzo, represents the com-mercial area of the city. Here once stood a two-story considerable building called the macellum (market): its upper floor coincided with the present elevation of Via dei Tribunali. The building, developed on a rectangular plan, was mostly paved with mosaics and had shops all around, which in turn were sided by a portico. Its perimeter enclosed the area currently occupied by the church of San Lorenzo, together with the 18th-century Cloister of the adjoining Franciscan monastery and its Chapter hall.

In the macellum inner courtyard there was a round temple, the tholos, whose base, along with its three steps once lined with marble slabs, can be partly seen now in the Cloister. Remnants of the mosaic floor date the original construction of the macellum between the 1st and the 2nd century B.C. The upper floor also consisted of shops and other constructions, used for different purposes.

Excavations have allowed to identify the superimposed layers upon which the entire contemporary area developed, thus enabling visitors to see how the various settlements have followed one another during the time, from the Greek to the Roman and from the Mediaeval to the Modern age.