The Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields and Castle of Baia will inaugurate the new museum route inside the Knight Pavilion on Thursday, Nov. 2025, at 11 a.m. In fact, as part of the event The Castle of Crossed Destinies, three initiatives that simultaneously reach their fulfillment will be presented: in addition to the opening of the new museum itinerary, the activation of In-Pause Culture Concept Store, a café space and hub dedicated to the discovery of the territory, and the inauguration of the photographic exhibition Campi Flegrei, the burning land by Luigi Spina.
The renewed exhibition itinerary of the Knight Pavilion significantly expands the visit to the Campi Flegrei Archaeological Museum, and makes accessible again rooms and terraces of the male fortress, which in recent years have been the subject of an extensive restoration and enhancement project. The interventions involved the recovery of the surfaces, the elimination of architectural barriers through new itineraries and dedicated services, structural consolidation and plant upgrading of the spaces. Financed with PON Culture and Development funds, the work is part of the broader process of upgrading Baia’s Aragonese Castle and the Museum’s layout, returning monumental and exhibition sites closed to the public for long years.
The project, developed by the Archaeological Park of the Phlegraean Fields with the grouping of professionals led by the CORVINO+MULTARI studio, includes several restoration and reconstruction actions: from the recovery of the wall facings to the securing of the paths, from the reconstruction of the fourth and fifth drawbridge to the arrangement of the access atrium, and the restoration of the roofing surfaces, walkways and battlements. Also restored were the internal and external ramps of the Tenaglia Tower, the Roman and medieval rooms incorporated into the so-called Median Tower, and the Pasubio Ramp, which connects the fifth drawbridge to the Knight Pavilion.
The new itinerary gives visitors access to the remains of the upper level of a Roman villa incorporated into the castle and marks the reopening of the first rooms of the museum section devoted to Baia (rooms 51-54). At about eighty-five meters above sea level, on the naturally highest point of the rise overlooking the gulf, there are preserved rooms belonging to a late Republican villa, later enlarged in the Julio-Claudian period and possibly traceable to the figure of Caius Julius Caesar. Discovered during restoration work between the 1990s and early 2000s, these spaces, characterized by extraordinarily intact floors, now become privileged places to tell the story of ancient Baia. The new display houses a selection of artifacts from the sea: ancient statues and architectural decorations that, after a long period of being underwater, return to view.
Also inside the Castle is In-Pause Culture Concept Store, nestled between ramparts and ramps. Designed as a place to stop and meet, it is part of the enhancement activities planned by the Insieme project. Phlegraean Archaeology Unites, developed under a Special Public-Private Partnership in collaboration with CoopCulture. In-Pause is a hub dedicated to local knowledge: a space where local food and wine products can be tasted and purchased, publications and merchandising can be consulted, and information on the history of the Castle, its prisons and the main Phlegraean places of interest can be gathered. Here it will also be possible to purchase tour and escort services to Piscina Mirabilis, Cento Camerelle and the Castle’s prisons. Designed as an open and permanent laboratory, the concept store will host meetings, exhibitions and events.
The third planned initiative is Luigi Spina’s photographic exhibition Campi Flegrei, la terra ardente (Phlegraean Fields, the Burning Earth ), set up in the Polveriera and in some of the Pavilion’s rooms that have been recovered specifically to host temporary exhibitions. Through twenty-five shots, Spina interprets the complex landscape of the Phlegraean Fields, investigating the fragile balance in which nature, ancient ruins and urban presence coexist in harmony and contrast. The result is a visual tale that restores the primordial power and rugged beauty of an area in constant transformation, where the perception of the landscape becomes a sensory experience and a reflection on the human condition. The exhibition, open until Jan. 31, 2026, is accompanied by a volume published by 5 Continents Edition, which collects the entire body of photographs created by Spina for this project dedicated to the Phlegraean Fields.
“The Castle of Baia and the Campi Flegrei Archaeological Museum are already the story of a crossed destiny. The story of a marvelous monumental container that has been called upon to perform a new museum function to restore and narrate, from the heart of the Phlegraean territory, the cultural complexity of a land central to the history of the ancient Mediterranean,” says Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park director Fabio Pagano. “In recent years, the Park has poured extraordinary energy into the pursuit of important goals: construction sites, research projects, management innovations and new interpretative paradigms. Some of these paths come to a conclusion and meet in the heart of the Park, in its most symbolic place. The Castle of Crossed Destinies is the moment when the trajectories undertaken go to join, the right finalization of converging projects, a point of arrival but also a starting point toward new important goals that aspire to carve out for the Castle of Baia, and the entire Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park, a renewed role within the cultural and tourist offer of Campania.”
On the occasion of the event, the new winter hours of the Archaeological Museum of the Phlegraean Fields and Castle of Baia will come into effect: open Tuesday through Sunday (closed Monday), from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (last admission at 5:30 p.m.).
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| Baia Castle opens new museum itinerary in Knight Pavilion after restoration |
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