LACCO AMENO

The Municipality of Lacco Ameno is the smallest municipality of the island with 2,07 square kilometres but the most densely populated – 4.300 residents.
A picturesque area famous for its mineral waters, the beach of San Montano, the natural Mushroom shaped tufa rock and ancient Greek tombs.
The main areas are Fango, Pannella, Campo and Fundera.

COUNTRYSIDE:
The main shopping areas are Via Roma and Corso Angelo Rizzoli, both situated parallel to the sea front. Lacco Ameno can be divided into three sections, the marine centre, its rural inland hilly area and Monte Vico with the bay of San Montano and the promontory of Zaro.
The Municipality is reached using the main coastal road from Casamicciola Terme and its emblem is the Mushroom Rock, a large tufa rock which is thought to have fallen from the peak of Mount Epomeo.

ENVIRONMENT:
Located on the island of Ischia, occupies the north-west and extends from the coast to the foothills of Mount Epomeo. Bordered to the east and west with Casamicciola Terme with Forio.
The name Lacco according to most scholars is derived from the greek Lakkos which means stone. On 18 November 1862 the City Council, chaired by the Mayor Carmine Mennella, asked the King Vittorio Emanuele II, the addition of “Ameno” to the name Lacco.

NOT TO BE MISSED

Culture, Art and More
IL FUNGO (The Mushroom Rock)
Centuries ago, following an eruption of Mount Epomeo this rock rolled down the mountainside to its present position. Eroded by the elements, it ha taken on the shape of a mushroom and is the symbol of the town.

PIAZZA SANTA RESTITUTA
Larges square in Lacco Ameno with a welcoming central park. The first Christian church was built here on the ruins of a pagan/Christian cemetery in the 4th century AD.

CHURCH OF SANTA RESTITUTA
Above the High Altar painting by Ferdinando Mastroianni of Our Lady of Carmine, St. Augustine and Santa Restituta on a boat pulled by angels painted by Filippo Balbi. Statue to the Sacred Heart, altar and canvas to the Holy Trinity (18th century), Virgin of Carmel with Baby Jesus (1560), canvas of St. Augustine and Presentation at the Temple (18th century), altar with statue of St. Joseph, crucifix (1500).

EXCAVATIONS AND MUSEUM OF SANTA RESTITUTA
The museum was the brainchild of the current rector Don Pietro Monti and contains numerous vase fragments, a weaving look with its original weights, clay toys, votive statues and vases painted with flowers and fruits, wine jugs and ampullae’s of perfume.

VILLA ARBUSTO
Built by Carlo D’Acquaviva Duke of Atri in 1785 on the site of Neolithic and Bronze settlements.

MUSEUM AND EXCAVATIONS OF ST. RESTITUTA
The museum, entrance to which is in the churchyard, measures 1550 square metres and is divided over two floors. The first floor comprises of three rooms displaying furniture and fittings, silver votive offerings, paintings, religious ornaments, nativity figures, relics, procession crosses, missals, 1700/1800 century Neapolitan statuettes and medieval ceramics. The archaeological department is divided into three sections.
First section:
Greek industrial area with ovens and kilns, clay work-shop, decanters dating from 700 BC, stone flour mills square and cone shaped.
Second section:
Intricately worked walls, Roman sepulchres cut into the floor, small altar made from local stone protecting relics of St. Restituta, pagan and medieval sepulchres, tufa rock columns, throne for a presbyter, roman coffins in marble.
Third section:
Ample cross section of relics from the first Greek colony, geological effects, flint and volcanic glass instruments, Bronze Age cups and dishes, a reconstructed oven and loom from prehistoric times, fragments of plates and imported Greek plates, tomb fittings (4th century BC) painted black, female locally made statuette.
Fourth section
Christian cemetery, various tombs and sepulchres.