Punta Campanella

This is the cape which separate the Gulf of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno.It was called Promontorium Minervae, and sheltered ancient greek and roman ships that here stopped waiting for favorable weather to proceed. Their crews, during the waiting, brought gifts to the temple of the goddess Athena, called Minerva by the Romans, to worship her and to beg for protection from the dangers of the sea. The temple was built on the promontory, and, centuries later, the Spanish built a tower on its ruins, still in good conditions, to defend the coast from the muslim pirates, the Saracens.As a consequence of these facts, this area is very interesting from an archaeological point of view, ancient anchors and lots of amphoras were found in the past. Here the bottom of the sea is a quick slope that deepens to over 100 m in the Gulf of Naples, but slopes slowly to less than 50 m on the Gulf of Salerno side. Weather and environment conditions are often very different from a side to the other, due to strong winds and currents, but these extraordinary conditions allow the richness of marine life that is possible to see here. Right in front of the cape, a big rock, emerging at a few meters from the shore, offers walls covered with Astroydes calycularis, at a shallow depth. On the other wall, southward of the cape, the rocks and walls are covered with red and yellow gorgonias until 40-45 m, with lots of small fishes.