By Silvia Pellizzon
13 January 2026
La Galleria Borbonica, the Bourbon Tunnel, a dusty passage full of lost items, the carcasses of cars and motorbikes, the remains of old electrical equipment and of statues, is the tunnel located under a hill called, ironically, God’s Mountain, Monte di Dio.
It is a segment barely longer than 500 meters/1,600 feet and was dedicated in 1855 to the Bourbon King Ferdinand II.
During World War II, the tunnel was used as a bomb shelter (thousands of Napoletani found shelter there for weeks on end) and later it became a judicial depository (as well as an illegal dump and a parking lot for cars).
Visiting it today you can still breathe in the subterranean life of the Napoletani who had lived there.
