Underwater photography exhibition - "Sunken Empire"

You are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition “The Sunken Empire”, showing monuments and archaeologists’ works in photographs by photographers Marcin Trzciński and Wojciech Zgola of the sunken city of Baje on the Bay of Naples in Italy.

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In 37 BC, while the civil war between Octavian Augustus and Sextus Pompey was still raging, the construction of a large harbour for the Empire’s navy began in the Bay of Naples. The main objective was to connect the lakes Avernus and Lucrinus with the Mediterranean waters of the bay, between the towns of Puteoli and Baje, by means of a canal. The extensive work resulted in the rapid development of the region, which was already given over to civilian use in 12 BC. There were warm thermal waters here, so it is not surprising that the area became a kind of resort for the mighty of the Roman Empire. Interestingly, the famous eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD bypassed the area Baje.

The collapse of the Roman Empire, the barbarian invasions or the sacking of the area by a Muslim army in the 8th century initiated the decline of the region.

The tectonic activity occurring in this part of the continent has caused a slow landslide into the sea. Today the area of the former patrician villas and Portus Julius are several metres under water.

The research, which began in the late 1950s and mainly in the 1980s, led to the establishment of the Baja Archaeological Park in 2002. The area is divided into 3 zones (A – totally protected, accessible only to authorized scientific research, B – protected but with the possibility of activities defined by the regulations and C – buffer zone) under the jurisdiction of the Archaeological Office of Naples. Every year archaeologists carry out prospecting and reconstruction work in the bay.

Our stay of several days resulted in hundreds of photographs of selected parts of the huge excavation area.

We hope that the photographs presented here will allow you to visualise the vastness of the underwater wealth accumulated in the bay, and to appreciate for a moment the wealth and craftsmanship of the builders of the Roman Empire 2000 years ago.

Opening of the exhibition “Sunken Empire” 16 January 2014 at 17:00 Kazimierzowski Palace, UW Campus, 26/28 Krakowskie Przedmieście Street Warsaw I daily from 16 to 30 January.

Wojciech Zgoła – a passionate and propagator of diving. An independent journalist. Since 2007 he has been photographing underwater, and since the end of 2008 he has also been diving with a camera. He focuses his attention mainly on the wonders of underwater creation and terrain. He tries to travel everywhere, but not only where there is a possibility to dive. Since 2008 he has been running his own website:
www.dive-adventure.eu