Did you know that Herculaneum had even lost its name?
Its not just the damage, it’s the mockery! We were buried and forgotten by the world for more than 1700 years. As they say, out of sight, out of mind….
In the Middle Ages, the settlement of Resìna arose here. In the 16th century, a scholar managed to find ancient Herculàneum, but no one then really tried to look for it. Until the 18th century… this is an incredible story, listen to this!
So… A farmer – Ambrogio Nucerino, also known as Enzechetta – was digging a well to water his vegetable garden. One strike with his pickaxe, then another… and suddently poor Enzechetta found himself in the middle of the theatre stage at Herculaneum! The news reached the ears of a French nobleman, who bought the well and started digging on his own.
Then, in 1738, came the turning point: King Charles of Bourbon decided to finance the first real archaeological excavations. He handed the project was handed to his Military Engineers, who employed soldiers, convicts, forced labourers and even Turkish slaves as labourers.
They had to work like miners, or rather moles: they proceeded haphazardly, by the light of lanterns, digging shafts and tunnels less than 2 metres high and 1 metre wide at most. A bit like the ones you are now walking down. Sometimes, the diggers were forced turn back by toxic gases. Very hard work, in short.
The ancient city lay under a mountain of rubble and compressed ash, which was as hard as stone. It was only in 1828 that open excavation began, but it wasn’t until 1927, thanks to the archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri, that Herculaneum really saw the light again. It was quite literally a herculanean undertaking, in which many inhabitants of the modern city participated. In 1969, the city got back its ancient name: it no longer Resìna but, for everyone, Herculaneum.