The long wave of history has marked out for himself even this small portion of land in the middle of the sea. A strong colors in past battles and made of, poet, and courtesans, pirates and generals

The island by its geographical nature has always been in a position defiladed compared to major events in Italy, but understand the development over time is equally interesting because often the local history has handled its pages and war, and why going to dig in the small drawers of a house helps to understand many things its people, so follow the slow flow of life of the province need to have a clear picture of the history of the mentality of a people. The Middle Ages Ischian: With the arrival and settlement of the Lombards in Italy, the island became a part with the duchies of Gaeta, Naples, Amalfi and Sorrento, "the extreme periphery of the Byzantine Empire."

In 588, Emperor Mauritius it granted the domain directly to Naples and, in 661, the island was just a governor with the title of Conte, reporting directly to the Duchy of Naples. The archaeological finds have revealed the presence of plants factories terracotta (ceramic Byzantine "), some metallurgical factory. The landscape Ischian was primarily rural, however, almost as in the Roman period, with fragmentary sets of properties that took the name "bottom", followed by the name of the owner, "vico", "place", "villa", "house". .., traces of which remain in place names today. The owners, in this period, were the Church and citizens Napolitain.

In 598 Pope Gregory the Great acts to protect the rights of the Neapolitans. The letter uses the term "de Insulis" to indicate the island and the island of the castle. This testifies that the island is no longer a proper name (Pithekoussai, Aenaria), but the common name "insula" which, by phonetic evolution spontaneous change to "Islamic" and, finally, to "Ischia". In the ninth century, the island continues and repeated Saracen raids and nell'812, Pope Leo III sends a letter to Charlemagne to recommend the fate of the inhabitants of "Iscla Maior", ie, of the great. The island of the castle, "Insula Minor or" Gerone "was now fortified," Kastron, and in 991 he was able to resist the victorious Saracens. Settlements open, that is not defended, they were called "khor", a term which almost certainly the name derives Forio.

A document of 1036 provides a lot of information on the island, although not all were recovered. Count Marino and his wife Theodora, who had built a small temple in honor of Santa Restituta on the ruins of early Christian basilica at the foot of Monte di Vico, let all who owned property in today's Lacco Ameno, Casamicciola, Fontana, Barano and the castle, the convent and church of Santa Maria, run by Benedictine monks and located on the mountain Cementara (today Cimmiento) in today Lacco Ameno. The document informs us also that there are two other convents, one in Sant'Angelo and the other in Testaccio. In 1228 it was news of a terrible earthquake destroyed "many houses ... with the ruin and death of 700 people well."

During the period in which it belonged Ischia to Sicily (1287-1299) has set the sixth novel of the fourth day of the Decameron, in which Giovanni Boccaccio recounts the abduction, by a Sicilian sailors, of Restituta Bulgarian, a beautiful young girl ischitana, which is then released by his young lover, the grandson of Giovanni da Procida. The search for Salvatore Fodale have, moreover, attested the presence of numerous ischitana in Sicily, also confirmed in the toponymy of Palermo, from the name of a courtyard of Ischisani said. In this period included names of villages remained unchanged to date, while others are still obscure. The castle begins to take its role of protection than the scattered hamlets, the center developed or Borgo Borgo Celsa Sea (modern Ischia Ponte), where, among other things, the complex of the Augustinian convent of Santa Maria della Scala .

During the conflict-Aragons Angevins the island, and the castle in particular is the scene of clashes. Peter III, promising aid, were also invited to Ischitana Angevins to rebel, but in 1297 the Admiral Roger Loria was able to take possession of the castle. Attempts to recover Angevins of the island were countered dall'ischitano Piero Salvacossa, but they treated the same yield in 1299. Charles II of Anjou officially granted the pardon, as to all the inhabitants of Ischia who had rebelled with him and had acceded to the Aragonese. Granted also that the island remains owned in perpetuity. Due to its strategic location, the castle was fortified even more and even houses were built. Carlo was also building a port at the foot of the castle for the military and merchant fleet, with dry dock and shipyard. Ischia's men were masters of a large fleet, whose presence is reflected in the ports, among many others, Venice, Bari, Palermo, Pantelleria, Rome, Tunis, Lebanon. Ships carried ischitana also supplies and soldiers in Tunis for the King of France, Louis IX the Saint.

In January 1301 (or 1302) there was an eruption, that of Fiaiano, terrible and prolonged, "which destroyed all signs of human presence along the path of the lava flow." When everything calmed, the inhabitants returned and, for the most part, settled in the village Sea, around the convent of the Augustinian friars, where the village was being increasingly infittendo.

In 1320, he was host of the Castle King Robert d'Anjou, Prince product and protector of letters, who welcomed to his court Petrarch and Boccaccio. Was accompanied by his wife Sancha and dignitaries. It was received with great pomp by the Count Cesare Sterlic governor. When the Angevin dynasty became extinct, followed by the inevitable struggles of succession, Ischia, and several times was the land of these struggles. Already for the sequence of Giovanna I had been occupied by Charles Durazzo, on the mountain Rotaro the battle had taken place between the troops of Ladislao Durazzo and those of Louis II of Anjou. The Castle of Ischia completes all the stages of the ascent of Alfonso of Aragon to the throne of Naples. Fell into disgrace of Queen Giovanna II, though he had adopted, in 1423 Alfonso repaired at Ischia and the looting, because it considered too loyal to the queen. This could take the island with the help of a powerful Genoese fleet and looting that devastated the entire island.

In 1438, Alfonso of Aragon, aided by Michele Cossa, lord of Procida, which had a large bottom on the inhabitants of Ischia, conquered it, running the risk of drowning, the Castle, defended mainly by followers of Giannozzo Manocia conducive to Angevins . Alfonso sent into exile and forced the defenders of their wives and daughters to marry the 300 Catalan, his faithful, to whom he gave the fortress. Became king, gave the island to his favorite, Lucrezia d'Alagna Tower of Greek, who entrusted the government to his brother, John Torella Spanish. Become of the strategic importance of the Castle, Alfonso made to consolidate the structures, build a tunnel to replace the old staircase and the bridge with a bound the island, a bridge that could be "beaten" by the gun. To fund this work applied a duty on salt, iron and pitch, imported or exported from Ischia. Granted many favors, "privileges" to ischitana, including the ownership of half a mile of the sea with beaches, beaches and headlands; them exempt from any type of tax and also granted the privileges of a judicial, and ecclesiastical honorific.

Succeeded Ferdinand I, Ferrante said, who was forced to fight to the death against the barons in revolt. Even the governor of the castle, John Torella, did not want to recognize the sovereignty and the king sent troops who defeated the Aragonese. Torella joined with pirates and the troops of John of Anjou, took the Castle, but died in battle, the mountains of Campagnano. Ferdinand I abdicated, the arrival of Charles VIII, in favor of his son Ferdinand II, who was forced to take refuge in Ischia, where the murdered castellano, Giusto di Candida, guilty of intelligence with the enemy. Entrusted to the island Inigo d'Avalos, Marquis of Pescara and Vasto, who successfully defended against Charles VIII. The king was able to return to Naples and, at his death, succeeded his uncle Frederick I, which soon saw wrest the kingdom from Louis XII, King of France. Churches help his cousin, Ferdinand II the Catholic, but these, with the Treaty of Granada, had already agreed with the king on the French division of the Italian states. Frederick retired to Ischia, where he lived for some time, then chose to surrender to the French and not to his cousin Ferdinand who had betrayed. He went to France, giving the island the Marchese del Vasto. When you rekindled the conflict between France and Spain, King Frederick ordered to cede the island to the king of France. Inigo d'Avalos and her sister Constance, mainly Spanish, preferred to defend against the French galleys, thus facilitating the large master Gonzalvo de Cordoba the occupation of Naples.

In 1504, Ferdinand the Catholic also became king of Naples. The state was so absorbed napoletano by Aragon, making for more than two centuries only viceregno Spanish. Ferdinand the Catholic concedette the domain for life of the island of Ischia to Costanza d'Avalos. The "superb cliff, the castle became the residence of" great masters "and governors, and beautiful women, almost all princesses or with political weight, but, above all," an upper room of the Renaissance humanist around Vittoria Colonna. " Victory over the castle married Francesco Ferrante d'Avalos, who was the winner of Pavia, where he made prisoner Francis I, King of France. Following the wounds of battle, Ferrante died. It was still very young, his death left Victory Column in a state of profound grief. Almost all the historic events of the first half of the 500 had a sounding board as the Castle: The Battle of Ravenna (1512), the Battle of Pavia (1525), the sack of Rome (1527), the Battle of Capo d'Orso (1528). And when the pope, Clement VII, to free Rome from Lansquenets, committed sacred ornaments, tiara and jewels, handed them to Alfonso del Vasto, who gave them in custody to the aunt Costanza d'Avalos Castle. This fervor for life went off and already in 1554 Ariadeno Barbarossa with his pirates had plundered, devastated and destroyed every corner of Ischia. Followed the incursion of Dragut (1546), in which the island, according to a description of 1574, was in a pitiful state and of great poverty. These were mainly of sailors, fishermen and fatigue settled in villages, whose features and limits are specified in the charter of Paper Mario, annexed in 1588, at the doctor calabrese, Giulio Iasolino, who described the baths' s Ischia and their medicinal effects. During the Viceregno Ischia was divided in three universities: the City and the island (the present town of Ischia), with that of Forio Panza, the one which included the Third Fontana, Cheats, Casamicciola and Lacco, ie, all area median ( "el tercio). Remained, however, under the rule of d'Avalos, and only in 1734 or so, gained their independence, returning to land.

During the War of Spanish Succession, Naples, Ischia and then passed to the Austrian government in 1734 and under the Bourbon to Charles III. During the Republic Partenopea in March 1799, Ischia also raised "the tree of liberty", but already in early April, the English fleet landed on the island to punish the insurgents, many of which ended in the prisons of Sant'Elmo, others on the scaffold, others in exile. In 1806, the Kingdom of Naples was given to Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon I, and in February of that year the French occupied the island of Ischia and installed garrisons in response to the attacks of the English fleet. The French began a policy of reforms: abolition of feudalism, and dell'Anagrafe reform of the state civil justice reforms in administrative and judicial reform of the tax system.

In 1808 came to the throne of Naples, Joachim Murat, who gamble some independent political move by Napoleon, but in 1815, defeated at Tolentino and forced to abdicate, took refuge in Casamicciola - the Sentinel-where to run for groped to regain the kingdom. Caught in Pizzo Calabro, was shot by the Bourbons. After the Congress of Vienna, Ferdinand returned to Naples by the name of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, being again the two kingdoms together. Ischia was aggregated to the district of Pozzuoli and the Castle, which in 1799 had already been used as a bath criminal, was annexed to the land and life imprisonment became official.

Under Francis I, King of the Two Sicilies (1825-1830), many disaster fell on the island of Ischia, including the earthquake of 1828 that reduced a heap of ruins Casamicciola. By Ferdinando II Ischia was also included in an extensive program of public works: roads, cable Ischia-Continent, the church of Portosalvo and, especially, the opening of the port which opened new horizons to the island. At the Bourbon Casamicciola opened the beautiful road Ferdinandea (now Princess Margaret), the way Maria Teresa (now Via Garibaldi), the Strada Regia, now known as the Bourbon, the road halfway up the stock, which Forio, passing through the mud, it arrives to Maio. A Forio intervened and care for the pier and the church of San Vito. The history of the rulers to Ischia in 1860 ended in a unit of Italy.