Grotta della Dragonara

A Roman cistern known as the Dragonara has been excavated in the tuff wall overlooking the beach at Misenum. It has a quadrangular plan divided into five naves by three rows of twelve large columns carved out of the tuff, lined with opus reticulatum and covered with cocciopesto. It was originally accessible from above through three large openings in the barrel vault. Recent excavations have brought to light a basin lined with hydraulic cocciopesto, accessible by steps and characterised by a sloping plane towards an opening communicating with a cistern below. According to some scholars, the cistern had the function of supplying the ships of the Misenate fleet, but it cannot be ruled out that it was connected to the rooms of a residential villa attested on the beach further south, perhaps identifiable, on the basis of literary sources, with that of Lucullus, who died there during the reign of Tiberius and was later acquired by the Imperial State.