Taranto Sotterranea


Useful Information

Location: Necropoli - Epoca Magnogreca, Via Marche, 74121 Taranto TA.
(40.45974544895635, 17.254111935088023)
Open: Crypt of the Redeemer, Via Terni: All year Sat 20-23, Sun 19-22.
Chamber tomb of Piazza P. XII: All year Sat 20-23, Sun 20:30-22.
Four-chamber tomb in Via Pasubio: All year Sat 20-23, Sun 19-20:30.
Necropolis of Via Marche: All year Sat 20-23, Sun 19-22.
Tomb of the Athletes, Via Crispi: All year Sat 20-23, Sun 19-20:30.
Ponti Hypogeum, Via Di Mezzo: All year Sat 20-23, Sun 20:30-22.
Guided Tour: All year Sat, Sun 19.
[2020]
Fee: Each Site: Adults EUR 2.
Guided Tour: Adults EUR 6, Reduced EUR 3.
[2020]
Classification: SubterraneaRock Mine SubterraneaCellar SubterraneaCistern SubterraneaUnderground Museum SubterraneaHypogeum
Light: LightIncandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours: D=2 h.
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:
Address: Taranto Sotterranea, Necropoli - Epoca Magnogreca, Via Marche, 74121 Taranto, Tel: +39-347-612-2488. E-mail:
Nobilissima Taranto, Tel: +39-327-455-7909.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2014 Taranto Sotterranea founded.

Description

Taranto Sotterranea (Underground Taranto) are numerous separate underground structures, which are of artificial origin. Those subterranea were used as quarries, tombs, cellars and much more. The oldest were built when the city was founded by the Greek, but underground excavations were made at all times. Most structures are rather small, the size of a private cellar, others are vast.

The responsible people soon realized that it was impossible to open 15 or 20 different sites and provide the personnel to keep them open. So they created Taranto Sotterranea in 2014, which organizes tours into the 16 most important underground locations of the city. In other words, there is a single tour which shows sixteen separate underground structures. Unfortunately, they shut down their website and replaced it by a facebook page, which is quite a shame. So the open hours we give above are from 2019. It seems the tours start every Saturday and Sunday at 19 at the Necropoli - Epoca Magnogreca, an archaeological museum located in the Via Marche. Six of the sites seem to be open on Saturday and Sunday evening for a few hours. But as far as we understand, all the explanations are given by the personell, which speak only Italian. There are no explanatory signs, and there are no translations in any other language, which is a problem for foreign visitors.

Unfortunately, we have no current open hours, the last we were able to retrieve, before facebook made it impossible, are given above. Also, the facebook page has not been updated since 2022, so we are not sure if the company still exists. Recent comments on Google and others were quite frustrated, as they were not able to contact anybody. So we are happy about any update, if you actually visit the site, email us, please.

  1. Ipogeo de Beaumont Bellacicco (Hypogeum de Beaumont Bellacicco): A series of rooms created by the quarrying of the first Greek when the city was founded. Over time, a series of vast underground rooms were created which in the following centuries were used for various purposes. At the end of the 17th century the De Baumont Bonelli family built a palace on top. But when the family abandoned this panlace the underground rooms fell in disrepair. The hypogeum was completely restored and enhanced by Dr Bellacicco in 2002.
  2. Ipogeo di Palazzo Delli Ponti (Hypogeum of Palazzo Delli Ponti): Excavations revealed a section of the Greek walls from the 5th century BC. A cemetery with ten arcosolium tombs placed along the wall and eight pit tombs dug into the rocky surface were excavated.
  3. Ipogeo di Via Cava 99 (Hypogeum of Via Cava 99): The analysis of the wall structures showed at least three phases between the Middle Ages and the 18th century during which the tuff walls and barrel vaults were built. On the east and west fronts, two lowered openings appear to belong to arcosolium tombs probably dating back to the early Christian period. Other rooms excavated along the rock face appear to have been used as workshops or as stables.
  4. Il Cantiere Maggese (The Fallow Worksite): The origin of these secret passages is enigmatic. Located close to the old city wall is a series of chambers connected by narrow passages.
  5. Frantoio Ipogeo Normanno (Norman Hypogeous Oil Mill): This is probably the oldest underground oil mill in Puglia. The first written mention is a notarial deed dated to 1084. That's the reason why this sie is called "Norman". The excavations revealed quarry elevations and cuts, and many millstones from the Norman age.
  6. La Fornace Medievale (The Medieval Furnace): One of the furnaces which appeared along the two fronts of Via Cava together with oil mills and other production environments during the 13th century. It had three ovens of which only the hobs and the cooling tanks remain. Traces of the combustion residues from the time when the furnace was in operation are visible.
  7. Ipogeo di Palazzo Baffi (Palazzo Baffi Hypogeum): The deepest hypogeum of the city is probably of Greek age, according to the style of the quarry cuts and their workmanship. It has two sections, the first was used as a coal warehouse, the second had a significant social function between the 16th and 17th centuries. A vast network of tunnels connects it with the sea, the Aragonese Castle and the Piazzetta San Francesco. On the west there is a deep well. As a result of its depth the floor is generally wet from groundwater.
  8. Ipogeo di Palazzo Santamato (Hypogeum of Palazzo Santamato): The hypogeum seems to have had several construction phases. We are along what was once called Via delle Fogge; at the end of the descent, in fact, we find a granary shape. A passage characterized by a beam whose characteristics give the perception of being a component of the first phase of use of the hypogeum leads into a large hall with a barrel vault probably from the eighteenth century. It is an environment clearly expanded compared to the past as evidenced by the triarch structures above. These are medieval structures. In the center of this hall there is an arched passage that leads into what appears to have been the first underground room of this complex structure. We are faced with a cult environment dating back to the early Christian era. It would be the first discovery of an early Christian cultural structure in the upper and western part of the island.
  9. Ipogeo di Palazzo Stola (Hypogeum of Palazzo Stola): The long descent to the underground rooms is made up of a floor whose materials indicate that the structure must have dated to the fifteenth/sixteenth century period. At the end of the descent, on the left are the rooms probably used by the servants. The hypogeum was used as an oil mill. There is also a cistern as in all production environments. A duct leads to access to the sea to allow the loading of products onto boats.
  10. Ipogeo di Palazzo Arco Paisiello (Hypogeum of Palazzo Arco Paisiello): It is one of the most emblematic manifestations of the construction of the noble buildings of the ancient village created by making full use of the pre-existing medieval structures witnessed by the rich sequence of arches, small arches and barrel-vaulted rooms in Carparo. There are also traces of an ancient oil mill and a well.
  11. Ipogeo Della Capitaneria di Porto (Hypogeum of The Port Master's Office): In this hypogeum there are numerous walkways that still lead to the small port whose walls are particularly powerful as they were obtained from the original rock bank. It is still a mystery as to whether some of these walkways also led to the nearby monastery of Santa Chiara.
  12. Ipogeo di Palazzo Spartera (Hypogeum of Palazzo Spartera): It is among the most important hypogeums with its 800 m2 which unfold in several levels towards the sea and which once must have been connected with the environments that remain below the Carducci bastion. It is perhaps also the most complex in terms of its use. The presence of a furnace, together with tiled rooms and tunnels, and pipes for channeling water could lead us to hypothesize (also given the proximity to the Molo Sant'Eligio) the use of the places aimed at the conservation and processing of fish.
  13. Ipogeo di Palazzo Gennarini (Hypogeum of Palazzo Gennarini): It consists of a single large room located about eight meters away and runs along Via Duomo for twenty-five meters. Arranged as part of the noble palace with a storage function together with a small oven, it is characterized by the presence of a cistern well fed by the underlying aquifer.
  14. Ipogeo Palazzo Mannarini (Palazzo Mannarini Hypogeum): Built on a pre-existing early medieval structure from the tenth century, it was remodeled in the eighteenth century and enlarged in the nineteenth century. In this property the original floors are still preserved in each room. There are also numerous finds from the Greco-Roman age.
  15. Ipogeo di Palazzo Nardoni – Gallo (Hypogeum of Palazzo Nardoni – Gallo): Three levels articulate this particularly impressive underground site where, following two descents, one from Via Duomo and the other from Piazza Monteoliveto, it is possible to admire enormous quarry cuts that have been exploited for a long time since the archaic age. The service area of the late seventeenth century palace of the noble Gallo family is very complex, full of deposits, wells and cisterns.
  16. Ipogeo di Palazzo Ulmo (Hypogeum of Palazzo Ulmo): It is one of the most impressive underground environments beneath which there are walkways that are yet to be investigated. It is composed of a large quadrangular room in the center of which a small lowered arch leads into a long room at the end of which there must have been the spaces reserved for the animals, preceded by those used for storage.