Terme di Baia e Castello Aragonese (Museo Campi Flegrei)
Bacoli
KnownHistory & archaeology

The story
Terraces of imperial baths descending towards the sea, and above them the Castello Aragonese guards the statues brought back up from the sunken Baia.
Access
€
The story
The Aragonese Castle of Baia rises on a promontory sheer above the sea, between the calderas of two Flegrean volcanoes, in a position that dominated the whole Gulf of Pozzuoli as far as Ischia and Procida. A late-fifteenth-century fortress on an already-Roman site, today it houses the Archaeological Museum of the Campi Flegrei.
What to see
The museum gathers the treasures of ancient Baiae and the Campi Flegrei: the statues and casts of the shrine of the Augustales of Misenum, the reconstructed imperial nymphaeum of Punta Epitaffio, the finds from the Roman villas of the area. And from the castle's terraces, a very wide panorama over the gulf.
Tips
Combine the visit to the castle with the museum: it is a striking sight between history and landscape. Find out about openings and ticket on the official channels, since the Flegrean area is subject to bradyseism. To be combined with the Underwater Park of Baia, a short distance away.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Aragonese Castle of Baia house?
The Archaeological Museum of the Campi Flegrei, with the finds of ancient Baiae, including the shrine of the Augustales of Misenum and the reconstructed nymphaeum of Punta Epitaffio.
Where is the Castle of Baia?
On a promontory at Baia, a hamlet of Bacoli, in the Campi Flegrei, facing the Gulf of Pozzuoli.
Why was the castle built there?
For its strategic position, sheer above the sea between two volcanic calderas, from which the whole gulf was controlled.
More gems in Bacoli
History & archaeologyAntro della Sibilla
Bacoli
A long trapezoidal corridor carved into the tufo (volcanic tuff), cut by blades of light, where Virgil imagined the Sibyl prophesying among the shadows of the rock.
History & archaeologyParco di Cuma
Bacoli
The oldest Greek colony in Italy, with the temples of Apollo and Jupiter stretched across the acropolis between pines and sea, where history begins in silence.
◆ History & archaeologyCento Camerelle
Bacoli
A labyrinth of cisterns on two levels dug into the tufo (volcanic tuff), also called Carceri di Nerone, where Roman water ran beneath a villa facing the gulf.
In the water & divingParco Sommerso di Baia
Bacoli
A Roman city swallowed by the sea through bradyseism: mosaics, columns and statues visited from a glass-bottomed boat or with a mask.
CastlesCastello di Baia
Bacoli (NA)
On the high promontory sheer above the gulf, the Aragonese castle guards the statues resurfaced from the submerged Roman city of the Campi Flegrei.
- ◆ History & archaeology
Tomba di Agrippina
Bacoli
Not a tomb at all but the remains of a small Roman theatre by the sea, tied by legend to Agrippina, mother of Nero, killed at Bauli.
More gems: History & archaeology
History & archaeology
Statua del Nilo ("Corpo di Napoli")
Largo Corpo di Napoli
A river god reclining for centuries in a quiet square, whom Neapolitans call the Corpo di Napoli: he leans his bearded head among putti and a sphinx.
◆ History & archaeologyCappella Pontano
Decumani
A small Renaissance temple on the decumanus, which the humanist Pontano had raised for his lost wife, still lined inside with Latin inscriptions dictated by his grief.
◆ History & archaeologySedile di Nilo
Decumani
On the corner of a small Spaccanapoli square survives the seat of the old Nilo quarter, where the nobles once gathered before the sedili of Naples vanished.
◆ History & archaeologyPort'Alba
Napoli
A seventeenth-century arch cut into the walls leads to the booksellers' street, where stalls of second-hand volumes pile up among yellowed pages and the shade of the old city.
◆ History & archaeologyPorta Capuana
zona Garibaldi
Between two cylindrical towers an arch of white marble opens like a Renaissance triumph, the old city gate facing the road to Capua.
◆ History & archaeologyReal Albergo dei Poveri
P.za Carlo III
An eighteenth-century colossus willed by Charles of Bourbon to shelter the poor of the Kingdom: a façade running more than three hundred metres, among the largest historic buildings in Europe.