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Ischia has seen 4,000 years of civilization, as it has been inhabited since the Neolithic age. Instruments made of flint and obsidian from the 3rd millennium BC has been found in a few parts of the island. On the hill of Castiglione the Bronze Age has left its traces with findings of ceramic fragments dating back to the 15th and 14th century BC, proving ties with Aegean-Anatolian civilizations. Around 770 BC Greeks from Eubea founded the settlement of Pithecusa on the hill of Lacco Ameno. This colony was the very first in western Greece and created a crossroad for the antique world, having its part in the creation of the Magna Grecia. Through the Greeks of Pithecusa the Etruscan, Latin and Italian nations for the first time came into contact with the Hellenic civilization and their products, most of all the art of construction.
Two importants finding testify to the importance of the colony: the Cup of Nestor with its 3 verses which allows to place the beginnings of the written alphabet around 725 BC; and the Crater of the Shipwrecked, the first example of a painted vase in the Western world. Both pieces can be visited in the Local Archaeological Museum of Lacco Ameno, the Villa Arbusto. |
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Eventually the Greeks left, frightened by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Later the Romans came to the island and gave it the name of “Aenaria”. They discovered many of the thermal water springs of the island and “invented” spa-tourism. Villas and temples were built near the springs, especially near Nitrodi in Barano, where a bas-relief of the nymphs of the spring has been found (now in the National Archaeological museum of Naples).
In 813 the island was for the first time called “Insula” (the Island) – in a letter of Pope Leone III. This Latin word altered throughout the medieval times to Insla, Iscla, Iscia and finally to its modern name Ischia. In 1301 the eruption of Mount Tripodi created the crater of Arso and destroyed a huge area between Fiaiano (“little flame”) and Ischia. If the island was “unstable”, so was its political life: after the fall of the Roman Empire lots of peoples passed by and ruled over the island: Barbarian tribes, the Dukes of Naples, Normans, Swedish, Germans, Agevin and Aragons. This period was ended in the 15th century by Alfonso d’Aragona who fortified the Castle and had the island governed by the family of the D’Avalos. |
During the period of the Partenopean Republic in the late 18th century many local patriots fought for freedom, but were severely punished. For a short time Ischia passed under the domain of the French Gioacchino Murat; the Castle was attacked and almost destroyed by the attacking English-Bourbon fleet led by Admiral Nelson! Ferdinand II of Bourbon created the port of Ischia, opening a small lake to the sea in 1854, and had the Church of Porto Salvo (save port) built. The inland road between Lacco Ameno and Forio, the Via Borbonica, is named after him. With the Italian Unity Ischia has come to a rest. In the 1950’s tourism started, first in Casamicciola (famous for its spas) then all over the island. The beauty of Ischia attracts visitors from all over the world. Many of them fall in love with the island and return again and again….. |
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Later the island passed under the domain of the Bourbon Dynasty. 
