Castel dell'Ovo

Castel dell'Ovo stands on the ancient isle of Megaride. One of the most fantastic of the Neapolitan legends takes its name from the egg which Virgil is said to have hidden inside a cage in the underground parts of the castle.

The place where the egg was kept was locked up with heavy locks and kept secret because "everything concerning the Marine Castle and its fortune depended on the egg". It was on the isle of Megaride that the Cumaenns (of Greek-Euboaen origin) arrived in their ships half way through the 7th century BC; on Mount Echia which lay behind the isle they founded the town (or at least an inhabited area) of Partenope, the necropolis of which was discovered at no.10 Via Nicotera in in 1949 during the digging of the foundations of a building to replace one which was destroyed by the bombardments of World War II.

In the first century AD, during the Roman occupation, on the isle and on Mount Echia was built the famous villa of Lucio Licinio Lucullo, whose gardens and fountains probably stretched as far as the present-day Piazza Municipio, as shown by remains discovered by the recent excavations beneath Castel nuovo. Of the villa there remain the drums of the columns of the so-called "Hall of Columns" which, during the Late Middle Ages was used as a refectory by one of the convents built on the isle and the remains of a nymphaeum on the terrace of Mount Echia.

Today, Castel dell'Ovo hosts exhibitions and other events.