Herculaneum, the City Covered by Mud

What it is and why it is worth a visit

Herculaneum was a Roman city by the sea, at the foot of Vesuvius. The eruption of AD 79 buried it under between 10 and 25 metres of ash, lapilli and mud, and that layer, which hardened, sealed it in a different way from Pompeii: here the carbonised wood of beams, furniture and even a partition was preserved, along with food remains. That is why many houses keep their upper floor and you understand better how people lived inside.

The site was revealed by chance by a well dug in 1709, and systematic excavation began in 1927. Today you see about four hectares of the twenty the city had: the rest remains under modern Ercolano. Since 1997 it has been a World Heritage Site, together with Pompeii and Oplontis.

What to see

• The houses: the House of the Mosaic Atrium, the House of Neptune and Amphitrite, with its wall mosaic, the House of the Bicentenary and the House of the Stags.
• The baths: the Forum Baths, the Suburban Baths and the north-west baths.
• The ancient beach: under the arches where boats were kept, more than 300 skeletons of people trying to flee by sea were found. It is the most moving part.

From the entrance you go down a ramp and see the whole city at your feet, with present-day Ercolano above it: it is the best way to understand how deeply the volcano covered it.

Opening hours

The park opens every day of the week:

• 16 March to 14 October: 8:30 to 19:30. Last entry at 18:00; you must leave the archaeological area by 19:00.
• 15 October to 15 March: 8:30 to 17:00. Last entry at 15:30; you leave by 16:40.

It is closed on 25 December.

Tickets

• General: €16.
• Ages 18 to 25: €2.
• Free: the cases set by Italian law, and for everyone on the first Sunday of each month, 25 April, 2 June and 4 November. On those days the ticket cannot be reserved: you collect it at the ticket office.

You buy online from CoopCulture, which handles the park's ticket sales, and show it on your phone with the QR code. If you are coming back or adding other sites, the park sells the Ercolano Card (€30 per person) and accepts the Campania Artecard, which is activated at the ticket office.

Getting there

By train, from Napoli Centrale (Piazza Garibaldi), take the Circumvesuviana on the Naples–Sorrento line and get off at Ercolano Scavi. From the station it is about six minutes' walk to the entrance at Corso Resina 187. By car, leave the A3 Naples–Salerno motorway at Ercolano Scavi and follow the signs. From the centre of Naples, the train is simpler than the car.

How long and when to go

Allow between two and three hours to see the main things without rushing. It is much more manageable than Pompeii, which needs a day. In summer go first thing: there is little shade and the heat is fierce at midday.

With children and accessibility

It is a good site to visit with children: it is compact and the houses are easy to understand. The park offers a children's map to download. For visitors with reduced mobility there is a route marked in blue on the plan, "Ercolano per tutti", and from 2 November 2026 they lend wheelchairs free at the ticket office, while stocks last. The ground is uneven stone: with a pushchair, a baby carrier is better.

Combine it with

Herculaneum is on the same train line as Pompeii, and from the area you can climb the Great Cone of Vesuvius, the volcano that buried it. If you only have half a day, combine Herculaneum in the morning with a walk through Spaccanapoli on your return.