“Hidden Secrets of an Ancient Roman Villa Emerge from the Depths: What Lies Beneath the Water?”
Volcanic Activity Reveals An Ancient Roman Villa
Giancarlo Marseglia Ceccoli/Flickr The villa is located near Casina Vanvitelliana on Lake Fusaro, pictured here.
On Feb. 27, the mayor of the Italian comune of Bacoli announced the discovery of a sunken villa in Lake Fusaro. This area is less than a mile from Baiae, the ancient Roman town where aristocrats and emperors used to vacation in luxury.
The same geological force that caused parts of Baiae to sink into the Gulf of Naples by the eighth century C.E. has now lifted this ancient villa from Lake Fusaro. The phenomenon — known as bradyseism — is caused by the filling or emptying of chambers beneath the surface of the Earth. When magma and other hydrothermal liquids enter these chambers, the fluids cause the ground above to lift. As they exit, the ground sinks.
Bacoli and the surrounding areas are particularly susceptible to bradyseism. When Greek colonists first settled the region in the eighth century B.C.E., they referred to it as “Campi Flegrei” or “The Burning Fields” due to the frequent volcanic activity. Lake Fusaro, Baiae, and Bacoli are all part of the Phlegraean Fields, a large volcanic caldera.
©Luigi Novi/Wikimedia CommonsAn overhead view of the Phlegraean Fields, the volcanic caldera where Lake Fusaro (seen here in the upper left) is located.
Since 2005, the area has risen four-and-a-half feet, according to a study by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. In 2024 alone, the Earth’s surface rose by seven inches in the region. This has caused the shoreline of Lake Fusaro to retreat, revealing parts of the bed that have been hidden beneath the water’s surface for hundreds of years — including the Roman villa.
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