ITALY: An ‘art station’ designed by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor to provide a visual metaphor for the descent into the underworld is the architectural highlight of Napoli’s recently opened Line 7.
The first 1·4 km section of suburban Line 7, known as Infraflegre, opened to passengers on November 10. The section starts at Soccavo station on Line 5 and runs to Monte Sant’Angelo. It was built by Webuild for Ente Autonomo Volturno, with challenges including seismic activity in the Campi Flegrei area.
The €140m Monte Sant’Angelo station has exits inside the Napoli Federico II university campus and the Rione Traiano neighbourhood which are inspired by the myth of the Cumaean Sibyl, as narrated in Virgil’s Aeneid.
The Sibyl was a priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony in the area, who was a guide to the underworld which was entered through a nearby crater.
The university exit has a 220 tonne cyclopean structure 19 m high and shaped like a mouth that envelops the escalators and guides passengers on an immersive journey into the station. The 11 m high, 42 tonne sculpture at the Rione Traiano exit is also designed as a mouth.
The underground environment is on a single level that slopes downwards and is clad in shotcrete to resemble a cave. Connections between the platform and the entrances are provided by escalators and inclined lifts inspired by the city’s funiculars.
Line 7 is operated as a standard gauge suburban railway, although it is numbered as one of the city’s metro lines and will be almost fully underground. Services initially run every 24 min between 07.26 and 19.34.
An extension to a €80m station at Parco San Paolo is scheduled to open in 2027, and then to a €170m station at Terracina in 2029. Subject to funding being secured, the line will eventually run to Mostra on the Cumana Line 4.
