Vigna di San Martino
collina S. Martino
Hidden gemNature
The story
One of the largest urban vineyards in Europe, worked by the Carthusians since the fourteenth century: seven hectares of vines, citrus and olive trees hanging over the bay, a step from the city's chaos.
Access
visits by booking
The story
The Vigna di San Martino is a vineyard of about seven hectares terraced on the side of the Vomero hill, just below the Charterhouse of San Martino: it was born with the fourteenth-century Charterhouse as the monks' estate. After the Unification it was confiscated from the Carthusians and separated from the monastery, then sold to private parties. Naples is, after Vienna, the European city with the most vineyard surface, and the only one to have one in the heart of the centre.
What to see
An agricultural landscape suspended over the city: rows of vines, olive trees, lemons and citrus arranged in terraces, with the mass of the Charterhouse and Castel Sant'Elmo as a backdrop and the gulf opening up in the distance. Saved in the 1960s from building speculation and declared an asset of historical-artistic interest in 2010, today it is a cultivated and living rural oasis.
Hours and prices
Free entry.
Tips
The vineyard is a private asset visited by booking, often with guided walks and a sunset aperitif organised by those who cultivate it: check dates and arrangements before going. The entrance is from the area of Corso Vittorio Emanuele; wear comfortable shoes, because the route climbs among the terraces.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Vigna di San Martino?
A historic vineyard of about seven hectares on the Vomero hill, below the Charterhouse of San Martino, born as the estate of the Carthusian monks: one of the few vineyards in the world in the centre of a great city.
Can you visit the Vigna di San Martino?
Yes, it is a private asset visited by booking, often with guided walks and a sunset aperitif: it is best to check dates and arrangements before going.
Why is it important?
It is a rare example of a historic urban vineyard, saved from building speculation and declared an asset of historical-artistic interest in 2010; it bears witness to the agricultural tradition of the Carthusians in the heart of Naples.
More gems: Nature
◆ NatureOrto Botanico
via Foria
Founded in the Napoleonic age, the botanical garden on via Foria lines up glasshouses, palms and rare species across twelve hectares: a green breath a step away from the traffic.
◆ NaturePedamentina di San Martino
Vomero→centro
A fourteenth-century stairway dropping from the hill of San Martino down to the city: hundreds of steps through vegetable plots, gardens and glimpses of the bay — one of the finest urban paths in Naples.
NatureVilla Comunale
Riviera di Chiaia
The garden stretched out along the sea at Chiaia: avenues of holm oaks, benches and old statues, with the gulf breathing beyond the iron railing.
NatureAcquario Anton Dohrn
Riviera di Chiaia
The oldest aquarium in Europe, opened in 1874 inside the Villa Comunale: historic tanks inhabited only by the fauna of the Gulf of Naples, behind the glass.
NatureSolfatara
Pozzuoli
The ground breathes: hissing fumaroles, mud that boils up and a smell of sulphur reminding you how alive the earth is beneath the Campi Flegrei.
- ◆ Nature
Valle dell'Inferno
Ottaviano
The wild hollow between Monte Somma and the Gran Cono, among ropy lava flows and broom that in spring sets the landscape ablaze with yellow.