THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE PHLEGRAEAN FIELDS BETWEEN BIBLIOGRAPHIC AND ICONOGRAPHIC SOURCES

Since ancient times, the Phlegraean Fields were one of the mostpopular travel destinations.For the particular geological characteristics of the territory, thenobility of ancient Rome built numerous pleasure villas, especially inthe area between Pozzuoli, Baia and Bacoli, and later, in the modern andcontemporary age, the travellers of the Grand Tour made the Phlegraeanfields a real centre of tourism known all over the world. Over the centuries,through their travels, local and foreign scholars described the environmentof the Phlegraean fields in their travel notebooks, often accompanied bysketches and drawings. In addition to these precious proofs, of particularinterest are the articles published in the architecture and engineeringperiodicals within which projects of buildings are reported to be placedalong the coastal strip, changing its original appearance.Through the analysis of bibliographic, documentary andiconographic sources, such as the guides of monsignor Pompeo Sarnelli,“La Guida de’ forestieri, curiosi di vedere, e di riconoscere le cose piùmemorabili di Pozzuoli, Baja, Cuma, Miseno, Gaeta. Ed altri luoghicirconvicini”, and canon Andrea de Jorio, “Guida di Pozzuoli e contorno”,the drawings of the French architect Prosper Barbot and the periodical“Bollettino del Collegio degli Ingegneri e Architetti in Napoli”, this paperintends to illustrate the environment of the Phlegraean fields during theXVIII and XIX centuries, making a comparison with the environment ofthe contemporary urban context. From the comparison of the sources itemerged how the image of the Phlegrean landscape has rapidly changedover the centuries. Today, most of the archaeological monuments and thesame coastline are covered by a poor quality contemporary building, theresult of the lack of control of the institutions, and which today gives theimage of an environment of great but disordered beauty.