Via Krupp is one of the best-known landmarks on Capri. It is a narrow path that twists down a cliff in tight hairpin bends. It exists because one wealthy visitor wanted an easier way to reach the sea.
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Friedrich Alfred Krupp ran one of Germany’s largest industrial companies, a steel firm that carried his family name. He was passionate about marine biology, and he first visited Capri in the late 1800s.
Capri was already a popular resort for European artists, writers and wealthy travellers. Krupp stayed at the Grand Hotel Quisisana, a luxury hotel in the town, which is also linked to the story of the caprese salad.
Krupp kept his research boat at Marina Piccola, the small harbour on the south side of the island. The hotel and the town lay high above it, and there was no quick route between them.
He commissioned a path to link the two. The engineer Emilio Mayer cut the route into the rock, and it was ready in 1902. The architectural historian Roberto Pane later called it a jewel set in the rock.
The path drops about 100 metres in a series of hairpin bends. Each turn opens a new view of the sea and the Faraglioni rocks. At the top, the path meets the area of the Certosa di San Giacomo, the monastery behind the story of Carthusia perfume.
Krupp also bought land at the top of the path, where he had planned to build a mansion. The mansion was never completed, but Krupp created a garden there instead, known at first as the Krupp Gardens. It was renamed the Gardens of Augustus in 1918.
The path has often been closed because of the risk of falling rocks, and the town’s official website suggests viewing it from a lookout in the Gardens of Augustus.