The Emerald Grotto is a karstic cavity partially invaded by the sea situated in the territory of the municipality of Conca dei Marini. It was discovered by the fisherman Luigi Buonocore in 1932. It measures about 45 x 32 meters and is about 24 meters high, and owes its name to the emerald shades that the water takes on due to sunlight filtered through an underwater fissure that connects it to the sea open. In very ancient times it was placed above sea level and within it, over time, numerous stalactites and stalagmites were created, which in some stretches unite to form mighty columns more than ten meters high; only as a result of a bradyseism phenomenon, the ground of the cave lowered, making it sink under water. In it there is a rare species of coelenterates, Anemonactis mazely, which lives in places where there is no light. In 1956, on its seabed, an underwater nativity scene was set up, consisting of ceramic figurines; annually, during the Christmas period, a group of divers lays bundles of flowers at the feet of the Child Jesus. The cave was also used as a film set for the television drama Capri. The Emerald Grotto is accessible both by sea and by the SS 163, from which you descend via an elevator.
