The Macellum of Naples was the

macellum A macellum (plural: ''macella''; ''makellon'') is an ancient Roman indoor market building that sold mostly provisions (especially meat and fish). The building normally sat alongside the forum and basilica, providing a place in which a market cou ...

or market building of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

city of Neapolis, now known as

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. Due to the rise of the ground level the macellum is now located beneath the church of

San Lorenzo Maggiore San Lorenzo Maggiore is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Benevento, in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is a member of the Titerno Local Action Group. Geography San Lorenzo Maggiore covers 16.17 square kilometers of hilly land ...

. The first construction dates to 5th or 4th century BC when the area was the location of the agora during the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

period. When Neapolis became a Roman possession it was eventually transformed into a macellum. This structure was covered by a mudslide in the 5th century AD, probably as a result of flooding. An early Christian

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

was constructed over the remains of the covered macellum. Consequently, this basilica was replaced by new construction over the centuries. As a result, the mud slide preserved the remains of the macellum. The macellum had an entrance to the north, where the Via dei Tribunali runs now. The rectangular building consists of a porticoed area with workshops and an internal open courtyard with mosaic floors. In the middle of the courtyard was a tholos, a circular building used for food selling. Small

taberna A ''taberna'' (plural ''tabernae'') was a type of shop or stall in Ancient Rome. Originally meaning a single-room shop for the sale of goods and services, ''tabernae'' were often incorporated into domestic dwellings on the ground level flanking ...

e, a laundry and the treasury can still be recognized. Today the macellum can be visited as a part of the monumental complex of

References

External links

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Badly translated English guide

Area archeologica del complesso di San Lorenzo Maggiore
{{Archaeological sites in Campania Tourist attractions in Naples Archaeological sites in Naples