The zoological station of Naples is a scientific excellence of international level and a precious point of reference in order to understand the relationship between the city and its sea. And it is also the creature of Anton Dohrn, to whom it is named, one of the most interesting characters of the 19th century scientific panorama, among the first supporters of Darwinian theories when those hardly managed to assert themselves in the official scientific worlds.
Born in 1840 in Szczecin, in Pomerania (region which later passed to Poland), Anton Dohrn belonged to a family who became rich with his grandfather Heinrich, owner of sugare refinery. A wealth condition which allowed his father, Karl August, to dedicate himself to his cultural passions, especially music, but also the entomology that made him famous, forming a friendship with the most famous scholars of the time, which was useful to Anton later. The young Anton didn’t have, at the beginning, very clear ideas about his future and undertook, without great conviction, medicine and zoology studies in Bonn, Berlin and Koenigsberg. He put a first milestone in his life in 1863, at the University of Jena, where, coming across Charles Darwin’s work, he was so conquered by it that he decided to continue the study of zoology and dedicate himself to demonstrate the validity of the Darwinian theory. And convinced that the answers were found in the sea, in which life found its origin, he chose to carry out some marine zoology research on the island of Helgoland. A disciple of Ernst Haeckel, an expert authority, he made other study trips to Scotland and on the occasion of one of those, he projected and built with his colleague David Robertson, a prototype of a portable aquarium to carry the organisms to study.
In Italy, the coveted destination of many men from Northern Europe, arrived for the first time in 1868, with Messia as a destination, the city where Haeckel sent all his students for research periods on the Mediterranean. And to be able to go to Messina, you had to embark in Naples, therefore the city of Parthenope was for Dohrn the first real impact with Italy.
Those travel experiences for study reasons gave Dohrn an intuition which would have marked his life: build all over the world a network of zoological stations, where researchers would have been able to stop for long periods and carry out their work, having everything they needed available. A sort of science staging post at the service of science. That idea was perfected in Berlin, where he thought that if they combined with the zoological stations of the aquariums open to the public, with the cost of the tickets it would have been possible to subsidise networks of facilities and the scientific research. And to start giving life to his project he chose Naples, after having initially thought of Messina. Not surprisingly, because at the time, it was in 1870, the Campania city had 500 thousand inhabitants and hosted 40 thousand tourists per year, which was a respectable number, which could haver represented an ideal public for the aquarium, and, therefore, lifeblood for the zoological station.
Therefore, he moved to Naples, where he lodged in Torlonia Palace in Mergellina, and he started the construction of the building on a land in the communal Villa in Chiaia which the Municipality had given him free of charge, accepting favorably is ambitious project. In 1873, the first nucleus of the Zoological Station was finished and it was right on the sea. But it didn’t last long because three years later, Via Caracciolo was built, and the sea moved away of few tens of meters.
Dohrn’s Neapolitan station immediately opened the doors to scholars from all over the world, to whom it offered ideal working conditions, also due to the equipment available. But above all for the total freedom recognised to them, since the fundamental rule of the Station was the respect of research freedom. And that principle remained unchanged and fully current nowadays at the Neapolitan institute of research.
The influx of researchers was already so considerable in those first years that it was necessary to soon extend the building, which was started in 1888. In 1905 the large courtyard was built and the library in 1958, reaching the final configuration of the large structure. Inside which, an enormous aquarium had been built from the beginning, with very advanced characteristics from a technologic point of view, due to the fact that Dohrn himself invented a system of tanks fed by sea water with a continuous replacement, which allowed a normal life to the animals. And the aquarium of Naples is the only one still open which has kept unchanged its original structure.
In the management of the Station, Dohrn showed extraordinary organisational and managerial capacities, so much so as to represent ante litteram the figure of the scientific manager. To raise funds to make the Station work, he used the tickets of the visitors, but also the boats used for the research at sea and the guided tours to illustrious guests who contributed with their donations. And it was his friend Krupp who financed the third edifice of the complex on the seafront.
On the other hand, the researchers who arrived at the Station found a unique welcome, even from the human point of view, which together with the beauty of Naples and the surroundings, made the Neapolitan institution immediately famous and highly sought-after worldwide. Only during Dohrn’s life, over two thousand scholars from all over the world stopped in Naples, in order to carry out their research on Mediterranean fauna and flora. And the majority of these indicated in the period spent in Naples a fundamental experience for the their own scientific career. Over time, the Zoological Station has “collected” twenty Nobel prizes among its guests.
Passionate about music, Dohrn welcomed in Naples apart from the scientists, many of his friends who were musicians. But he did not fail to pay tribute to the other muses as well. It was the founder who requested the frescoes by Hans von Marées which adorn the very rich scientific library. The Sala degli Affreschi (Room of Frescoes), where usually concerts took place, later would inspired Picasso and Paul Klee.
Anton Dohrn died in Naples in 1909, but his work was continued by his son and then by other scholars. This has allowed the Zoological station, which since 1982 is recognised as a Public Autonomous Research Body, to remain at the top of international scientific research and to be included among the most prestigious institutions in Italy.
Information
The aquarium is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 7:45 p.m.
Ticket cost: full 7 €, reduced 5.
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