Napoli Bar Offers Hair of the God… and an Altar to Worship Diego Maradona

There are coffee shops in Naples, and there is Bar Nilo.

Every city in Italy has hundreds of these little places, so you might well ask what makes this one so special?

A strand of hair. That’s the short answer. And it’s the reason hordes of football fans descend on Bar Nilo. The hair, according to local legend, belonged to Diego Maradona.

Bar Nilo has been around for more than 40 years, on the same corner in the heart of Spaccanapoli, on Via San Biagio dei Librai.

Spaccanapoli, meaning ‘street splitter’, is the main artery running through the centre of the city. It can be hard to navigate at busy times so Bar Nilo is easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

When you do find it, it looks like any standard Neapolitan coffee bar: A Napoli scarf on the wall, pictures of Maradona and San Gennaro, coffee being served, newspapers being read and a selection of brioche on offer.

But in here, there’s an altar.

Bruno Alcidi, the bar’s owner and the man who recovered the hair, has expanded the altar over time, adding more elements.

And there are rules: if you don’t buy a coffee, you can’t take a picture.

“Bar Nilo is always a special destination for Neapolitans, even if today the customers are more tourists than locals,” says tour guide Alessandro Tione. “It’s special for us because they have a treasure, whether it’s real or not we don’t know, but the owner built his own luck out of this idea, it’s very smart.”

The story goes that Bruno was on the same flight as the Napoli squad in February 1990, returning from Milan after a 3-0 demolition by the Rossoneri.

Maradona was in the row in front of Bruno, and when the superstar got up to leave, strands of that black mane were on the headrest. Bruno snatched the hair and stored it inside a cigarette packet. Once home, he started work on the altar.

The original iteration was more basic, with the hair inside a frame on top of a piece of paper with the words ‘Capello miracoloso di Maradona’ (Maradona’s miraculous hair). 

Placed at the centre of the blue-and-white altar, it almost looked like a certificate, as if Maradona had come to inspect the hair and gave it his blessing.

Over time, the hair was placed inside a swirling transparent box, which rotates on a device.

Since Maradona’s death in 2020, the altar has mushroomed, with two wings now adjoining the main piece, complete with figurines of Maradona in Napoli and Argentina colours as well as an angel, and pictures of the city’s patron Saint San Gennaro. 

“People don’t go to the bar for the coffee or the food, they go for Diego, and that makes it special,” says Alessandro.

Although the coffee, it has to be said, is rather good.