Galleria Borbonica (Bourbon Tunnels)
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Another tour offer in Naples, Italy, leading through parts of the vast system of underground tunnels and caverns beneath the city. Some of the tour here is similar to the two Napoli Sotterranea tours in the Spanish Quarter and the historic centre, respectively, namely in that it too covers some underground cisterns, aqueducts and former WWII air-raid shelters, but its biggest added value is the actual Bourbon Tunnel. Once planned as an escape route for the king, it was used after WWII as a space to impound vehicles. The by now half-rusted-away wrecks are a visual highlight and something the other tours do not feature.
More background info: First of all: ‘Bourbon Tunnels’ has nothing to do with bourbon whiskey but is a reference to the royal House of Bourbon, the Spanish royal dynasty that ruled southern Italy and Sicily between 1816 and 1860.
In 1853, King Ferdinand II of Bourbon commissioned the construction of a tunnel between the Royal Palace and the Della Vittoria military barracks on what today is Via Domenico Morelli. This was not so much for allowing the movements of troops to the palace, but more importantly for giving the king and his associates an escape route from the palace in the event of a popular revolt. The people of Naples had already shown that they were capable of uprisings, and the 1850s was apparently an unstable period, so the king’s fears were justified.
The architect given the task of designing the tunnel envisioned a double tunnel, one of them for vehicles. The original plans were grander than what could be realized in the end. Construction was complicated by the crossing of existing older underground quarries, tunnels, caverns and aqueducts that had been dug into the tuff rock underneath Naples many centuries earlier – see the background section of the Napoli Sotterranea Centro Storico chapter! Some of these had to be crossed by bridges. Work was carried out by simple means, manually with only pickaxes, hammers and shovels.
The main part of the (trimmed down) tunnel system was finished by 1855 but further construction was suspended for financial reasons. Before the escape route could fulfil its intended purpose the House of Bourbon had fallen and Naples was integrated into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 and the tunnel project was abandoned.
During WWII, when Naples became the Italian city most bombed by the Allies, the Bourbon Tunnels and adjacent older caverns were used as air-raid shelters (just like at the two Napoli Sotterranea systems in the Centro Storico and the Quartieri Spagnoli), providing safety for thousands of civilians, including those made homeless by the bombings. To this end, electricity and lighting was installed, the walls whitewashed and stabilized, ablutions added and a siren and communication system provided too.
After WWII and until 1970 the tunnels were used for dumping cars, motorbikes, scooters and bicycles, that joined wartime rubble from bombed buildings that was dumped down here.
This includes parts from a fascist-era monument to Aurelio Padovani. A founding member of the party he became the leader of the fascists in Naples in 1921. He and Mussolini, however, disagreed on various political issues so he was eventually pushed out of office in 1923, but remained popular in Naples. He died under dubious circumstances in 1926, namely when a fourth-floor balcony he and eight others had stepped out onto in order to greet a crowd inexplicably broke off, sending all nine of them falling to their deaths. It has been suspected that this incident must have been the result of some act of sabotage, possibly on the orders of Mussolini himself or his close followers in order to get rid of the still popular Padovani. Yet his subsequent funeral was still attended by thousands of admirers, the nearby Piazza Santa Maria degli Angeli was renamed after him and a monument erected in the square in his honour. After the war and the dissolution of fascism in Italy (though that was never 100% complete), the square was re-renamed to its original and the Padovani monument was demolished – and the broken bits dumped into the old Bourbon Tunnels. (On Wikipedia you can see a photo of the intact monument – external link, opens in a new tab.)
The Bourbon Tunnels and adjacent older underground systems were apparently explored and made accessible to the public from 2007 or so (exact info on this is hard to find).
Today they are one of the top underground attractions in Naples (and the city has quite a few of them).
In addition to the Standard Tour described below, there’s also a tour called Via delle Memorie, which includes a museum-like collection of relics from WWII. This could have been interesting from a dark-tourism perspective too. But I opted for the Standard Tour because only this one included the entire length of the Bourbon Tunnel as well as the former air-raid shelters. It was also the tour most recommended by the staff at the reception desk.
Yet more tours on offer (see below) are more for the adventurous, involving explorations of tunnels and caverns less geared towards tourists, so hard hats etc. must be worn. Those tours also include visits to cisterns still filled with water (such as you also see on the Napoli Sotterranea Centro Storico tours). One extreme tour is more a caving expedition, so not for the faint-hearted …
What there is to see: This chapter describes the Standard Tour at Galleria Borbonica – for the other tour offers see the paragraph above and this section for practicalities.
I had booked my ticket online (see below) for a Friday, but on the Monday before, I decided to drop by the office and ask if I could move my slot forward to the Tuesday, as that was 6 January, a public holiday in Italy, so tours should be running then too. (I requested this mainly because of the weather, which was forecast to be rainy on the Tuesday, so ideal for doing something underground, but better for Friday, i.e. more suitable to staying outdoors.) Fortunately, it was no problem at all and they just changed it on their table of bookings. This was in the low season, though. They may not have this level of flexibility in high season.
The next day I arrived at the Vico del Grottone entrance in good time to check in, and then had to wait for the tour to commence. In the waiting room was a glass cabinet containing some items from WWII, such as a rusty steel helmet, bottles, medals, light bulbs – presumably all found in the underground and put on display up here.
When the tour started we first were led down a spiral staircase straight down into the the underground of Naples. It wasn’t quite so deep down, and hence there were fewer steps, compared to the Napoli Sotterranea Quartieri Spagnoli tour. But I didn’t count them. Nor did I make a headcount of the group I was with but my estimate is that it was about 15 people, at most 20, so not as overcrowded as at the Centro Storico underground tours.
After arriving at the bottom we were led through various tunnels and caverns, some with piles of debris in the corners, presumably from the air-raid shelter days of WWII. As the guide pointed out this section was not yet part of the Bourbon Tunnel proper, but part of the centuries-old underground system from where tuff was quarried as building material and also for water cisterns fed by underground aqueducts – just like at the Napoli Sotterranea locations in the Spanish Quarter and the historic centre.
Branching off another cavern was a space where various items from the rediscovered air-raid shelters were arranged, mainly enamel water vessels of all dimensions, up to a full-sized bathtub, as well as jugs, bottles, a wall-mounted wooden cabinet and even some scales. More enamel items were neatly arranged in niches cut into the tuff walls. In one corner stood what remained of a rickety metal bed frame. In a smaller chamber was a rusty metal stove together with several pots and pans.
In a huge cavernous hall the floor was in large parts covered with what looked like beds without legs. Indeed this would have been one of the sleeping quarters for people who had sought refuge down here in the latter days of the air raids in 1943, when they had intensified following the Allied forces’ capture of Sicily from where they began their invasion of mainland Italy. Strewn about in this space were also other relics from those days, including shoes and some prams and buggies.
The guide explained the WWII days in Naples and what the living conditions were like in the air-raid shelter. She spoke fairly good English and had a calm and composed style of delivery, which I quite liked (although I also liked the much more lively and often humorous style of the guide on my Napoli Sotterranea Quartieri Spagnoli tour).
The sanitary conditions were also explained and illustrated by what remains of a row of toilet cubicles, some still complete with toilet bowls. And the guide pointed out that these were indeed proper flush toilets (not latrines) and that the cubicles used to have wooden doors too. The refuse back then would have gone straight into the sea, untreated.
As we moved on we came to a couple of “windows” to the one side of the passageway from where you could get a view into a large cavernous space some 10-15 metres below, where a cistern still with water could be seen. Steps led down there and further into the cistern/aqueduct system, but going there was not part of this tour (but is on other tours also offered by Galleria Borbonica – see below).
Moving on along the same level as before we came to another large cavern with a high ceiling with blocked off well holes at the top and some stabilizing brick structures to support the softer tuff walls.
There is also another set of WWII-era toilet cubicles. To the side of these a portable field telephone in its box hangs from a strap on the wall. Next to it is an electrical board with fuses and switches. Our guide gave us a warning that she would be activating a loud noise – and indeed it was a blaring siren. After she had turned it off again she explained that such communication systems were necessary, because so deep down underground you couldn’t actually hear whether a bombing raid was still ongoing or not, so you couldn’t tell whether it was safe to leave the shelter or not.
By now we were in the actual Bourbon Tunnel and after some more passageways we entered another series of very high caverns and here awaited what I found was the absolute highlight of this tour: the part where in the 1950s and 60s large numbers of cars, motorbikes and scooters were put in storage and then left there for good.
These rusty wrecks were fascinating. You could tell the different ages of the vehicles by their design, some in typical 1930s rounded designs, others more modern in boxy 1960s shapes. Scooters and motorbikes were parked in rows, some also in isolation and they too came in various designs from different periods. Some of the cars were cleverly lit up inside. In one row of vehicles the lights inside created the illusion that the headlights and rear lights were still functioning. Other wrecks were in such a state you could barely make out that they used to be cars, one large truck wreck was even upside down and one of the cars bent 90 degrees as if semi-crushed.
I found it all extremely photogenic so I was very busy trying to get some good shots – and as images say more than words here, I refer you to the photo gallery below to see what I mean.
There were also a couple of “artistic” installations involving human shapes made from bundled wire; these were sitting in a niche probably to represent people in the air-raid shelter. Another installation was more mysterious and involved what looked like a mortar and a pushcart.
After this we came to another huge towering cavern with a well hole at the top in the high ceiling. In a corner to the one side was a narrower well inside the tuff rock with a water amphora hanging down on a rope. In another corner was yet another such narrow well – and backlit inside it halfway up was a dummy “pozzaro”. That’s the word given to those little men who did the maintenance work in the underground water system. To get down here and back up they often merely used little step holes dug into the walls. And the dummy figure here gave an illustration of how they would have done it. It looks extremely dicey – how they managed without slipping and falling remains an enigma to me. (Cf. also Napoli Sotterranea Quartieri Spagnoli for more stories about the “pozzari”!)
In the final part of the Bourbon Tunnels we came to a space filled with WWII-era rubble from above ground. This included a piece of a Mussolini-era monument, namely a damaged statue of Aurelio Padovani – see above. In the heap of rubble behind the monument you can see the broken-off lower legs and feet of the main figure of the monument.
At the end of the tour there’s a large room with display cabinets along the walls. These contain all manner of objects found in the tunnels, ranging from WWII relics and memorabilia like helmets, caps, crockery, medals and whatnot to 1960s bottles of booze (still full!). And: all these items are for sale. I have to admit I was tempted by some of the offerings, but restrained myself as I didn’t want to be lumbered down by carrying such things around with me for the rest of day.
After this room we came to the reception desk at the other end of the Bourbon Tunnels, which is also the entrance for some of the other tours offered by Galleria Borbonica (see below). For us this was the exit, and the way out led past a garishly lit-up event/party space we were able to have a peek into. Apparently you can hire this and other parts of the tunnels for special events.
Passageways out back into open led through a multistorey car park so it was odd to see the Tunnels juxtaposed with parking ticket machines and lifts.
All in all, I have to say that the Bourbon Tunnels tour was easily the best of the various underground attractions on my January 2026 trip to Naples. It beats its most direct competitors, the two Napoli Sotterranea tours in the Spanish Quarter and the historic centre, by featuring almost everything these do, only better, plus much, much more. It has more and better relics from the air-raid shelter days of WWII, the “pozzaro” dummy, and of course those highly atmospheric and photogenic car wrecks. The shop at end of the tour doubles up as a museum on a par with that at the Centro Storico but unlike there you were free to look at this for as long as you liked. The tour was also more varied while at the same time not being too touristic (unlike the overcrowded Centro Storico tours). The only thing the Standard Tour of the Bourbon Tunnels does not feature that the other two tours do is those very narrow aqueduct tunnels. But squeezing through those is optional and even for those who do go through them it will rarely be the highlight. Galleria Borbonica also offers more adventurous alternative tours, including such narrow tunnels. The water cisterns at the Centro Storico perhaps look more atmospheric than the one on the Galleria Borbonica Standard Tour, but one or two of their other tours do feature very similar ones.
On balance, then, the Galleria Borbonica tours can’t be recommended highly enough. If you can only do one underground tour while in Naples, make it this one!
Google Maps locators:
Entrance at 4 Vico del Grottone: [40.8355, 14.2463]
Exit/entrance at 61 Via Domenico Morelli: [40.8329, 14.2434]
Access and costs: not hard to find, a little restricted (Fri-Sun and public holidays only); reasonably priced.
Details: In theory there are several entrances, but the one that makes most sense for the Standard Tour is that at 4 Vico del Grottone, off Via Gennaro Serra, near Piazza Plebescito. From the city centre it’s easily walkable. The nearest public transport would be the metro (line 2) station Chiaia, less than 100 yards down the road, or bus (line E6, stop Via Gennaro Serra).
Tours are available in Italian or English.
Times: Tours in English take place only Friday, Saturday, Sunday and on public holidays, starting at 10 a.m., 12 noon, 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. – outside these times, private tours can be arranged on any day, but I could imagine that they will be quite expensive unless you can get a large enough group together.
Price: Regular 15€ per adult person (for youngsters, aged 6 to 18, it’s 10€, for kids under 6 it’s free … but it’s probably not something that most toddlers would get much out of ...)
Tickets should be reserved online (out of season you could also try to just rock on up and see if you can join a tour), best from the official website, whose URL is: gallerriaborbonica[dot]com.
Tours are also offered from the other end of the tunnels at 61 Via Domenico Morelli, which are useful for disabled visitors, as this entrance is wheelchair accessible. The tour from there covers about 60% of the regular tour but includes the entire Bourbon Tunnel part, which is all on one level, just not the parts where there are steps to negotiate. Disabled participants pay the discounted rate of only 7€.
The Via delle Memorie Tours (see above) start at 14 Via Monte di Dio at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Fri-Sun and on public holidays and also cost 15€ (and the same concessions apply).
The Adventure Tours in English start at the Via Domenico Morelli entrance Fri-Sun and public holidays at 10 a.m., 12 noon, 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. and cost 20€ per person; for these tours there is an age limit, only from 10 (and those aged 10-15 have to show an identity document); the tour lasts ca. 85 minutes; hard hats have to be worn and there are some restrictions regarding photography. The tour involves a stretch of flooded tunnel traversed by means of a small boat/raft. It’s not suitable for people with disabilities or those suffering from claustrophobia.
Finally there is also an even more adventurous “Speleo Tour”, going even deeper into the tunnel system. Safety overalls and hard hats with head lamps are provided. These tours are for adults only (not suitable for people with disabilities or claustrophobia sufferers), and take place Fri-Sun at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. and cost 20€ per person.
The Adventure and Speleo tours are group tours for which a minimum number of five participants is required. If you are fewer than that but want to join a tour it’s best to enquire ahead of time by email: mail[at]galleriaborbonica[dot]com.
Time required: The Standard Tour runs for about one hour, some of the more specialized alternative tours are longer. Add some time (at least 15 minutes) before the tour for checking in at the reception desk.
Combinations with other dark destinations: If you want to do another underground tour on the same day then you could head to the Napoli Sotterranea Quartieri Spagnoli, i.e. the underground tours in the Spanish Quarter just to the north of the Bourbon Tunnels. Having already done the Bourbon Tunnels, though, that other tour might be a tad disappointing, as it lacks quite the drama and visual appeal. That said, though, I found it quite a good tour nonetheless – but then again I did the Spanish Quarter tour first and then the Bourbon Tunnels the next day. And I’d recommend it in that order, if you want to do those two tours at all.
And of course there are also the much more touristy underground tours at Napoli Sotterranea Centro Storico off Via dei Tribunali right in the heart of the historic centre of Naples. While these may be the most popular (and more expensive) tours, I wouldn’t recommend them after the other two tours, as I did it. If anything start in the centre and then add the other two, I’d say. However, few people may want to do three underground tours in a row. So if you want to do only two I’d recommend choosing the Spanish Quarter Tours and the Bourbon Tunnels, and if you want to do only one, stick with just the Bourbon Tunnels!
For more see under Naples in general.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: The best entrance to the Bourbon Tunnels tour is right around the corner from some of the top tourist sights of Naples, such as Piazza Plebiscito with the Royal Palace, and the Galleria Umberto I, the Castelo Nuovo and the waterfront are all just a stone’s throw away.
See also under Naples in general.
