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Lacco Ameno

Campanian geography stubsCities and towns in CampaniaIschiaMunicipalities of the Metropolitan City of Naples
Lacco Ameno Ischia
Lacco Ameno Ischia

Lacco Ameno (Neapolitan: U Làcchë) is a town and comune situated in the northwest of the island of Ischia, in the Metropolitan City of Naples off the west coast of Italy. The town has a population of around 4,800 inhabitants. It is located at the feet of Mount Epomeo, facing the sea. The name most likely derives from the Greek lakkos, meaning "stone". The name ameno was added to the official name in 1862. On July 28, 1883, Lacco Ameno was severely damaged by an earthquake; together with the neighboring town of Casamicciola, the earthquake claimed over 2,300 victims. 269 houses, about 69% of the entire building fabric, were completely destroyed, and only 18 buildings remained undamaged. However, this could not stop the change from a fishing village to a health resort with thermal springs. The Italian publisher Angelo Rizzoli made Lacco Ameno a place for the international jet set by building several hotels in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1962 he also donated to the only hospital on Ischia, "Ospedale Anna Rizzoli". On August 21, 2017, a moderate magnitude 4 earthquake struck Lacco Ameno and Casamicciola Terme, killing two people, partially collapsing a church and destroying several houses.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Lacco Ameno (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Lacco Ameno
Via del Marmi,

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Latitude Longitude
N 40.75 ° E 13.883333333333 °
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Via del Marmi

Via del Marmi
80075
Campania, Italy
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Lacco Ameno Ischia
Lacco Ameno Ischia
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Ischia
Ischia

Ischia ( ISK-ee-ə, Italian: [ˈiskja], Neapolitan: [ˈiʃkjə]) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about 30 km (19 mi) from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately 10 km (6 mi) east to west and 7 km (4 mi) north to south and has about 34 km (21 mi) of coastline and a surface area of 46.3 km2 (17.9 sq mi). It is almost entirely mountainous; the highest peak is Mount Epomeo, at 788 m (2,585 ft). The island is very densely populated, with 62,000 residents (more than 1,300 inhabitants per square km).Ischia is also well known for its thermal water and thermal gardens used since ancient times. Its volcanic nature makes Ischia one of the largest spas in Europe. Ischia's thermal waters are alkaline. Already the first Euboic settlers (8th century BC), as evidenced by the numerous archaeological finds found in the site of Pithecusa and preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Villa Arbusto in Lacco Ameno, appreciated and used the waters of the island's thermal springs. The Greeks, in fact, used the thermal waters to restore the spirit and the body and as a remedy for the healing of the after-effects of war wounds (in the pre-antibiotic era), attributing supernatural powers to the waters and vapors that gushed from the earth; it is no coincidence that temples dedicated to divinities such as that of Apollo in Delphi rose in every spa town. Strabo, a Greek historian and geographer, mentions the island of Ischia and the virtues of its thermal springs in his monumental geographical work (Geograph. Lib. V). If the Greeks were the first peoples to learn about the powers of thermal waters, the Romans exalted them as an instrument of care and relaxation through the creation of public Thermae and they used the numerous springs of the island surely and profitably (as evidenced by the votive tablets found at the Source of Nitrodi in Barano d'Ischia, where there was a small temple dedicated to Apollo and to the Nitrodie Nymphs, guardians of the waters) even without lavish settlements; In fact, on the island, as in Rome and in other ancient thermal centres, no impressive vestiges of thermal buildings have been found, probably due to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that frequently violently shook the crags. The decline of the power of Rome coincided with the abandonment of the use of bathrooms also in Ischia: in fact, there are no traces of the use of water in the Middle Ages. Ischia is the name of the main comune of the island. The other comuni of the island are Barano d'Ischia, Casamicciola Terme, Forio, Lacco Ameno and Serrara Fontana.

Aragonese Castle
Aragonese Castle

Aragonese Castle (Italian: Castello Aragonese) is a castle next to Ischia (one of the Phlegraean Islands), at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, Italy. The castle stands on a volcanic rocky islet that connects to the larger island of Ischia by a causeway (Ponte Aragonese). A first castle was built by Hiero I of Syracuse in 474 BC. At the same time, two towers were built to control enemy fleets' movements. The rock was then occupied by Parthenopeans (the ancient inhabitants of Naples). In 326 BC the fortress was captured by Romans, and then again by the Parthenopeans. In 1441 Alfonso V of Aragon connected the rock to the island with a stone bridge instead of the prior wood bridge, and fortified the walls in order to defend the inhabitants against the raids of pirates. Around 1700, about 2000 families lived on the islet, including a Poor Clares convent, an abbey of Basilian monks (of the Greek Orthodox Church), the bishop and the seminar, the prince with a military garrison. There were also thirteen churches. In 1809, the British troops laid siege to the island, then under French command, and shelled it to almost complete destruction. In 1912, the castle was sold to a private owner. Today the castle is the most visited monument of the island.It is accessed through a tunnel with large openings which let the light enter. Along the tunnel there is a small chapel consecrated to John Joseph of the Cross (Italian: San Giovan Giuseppe della Croce), the patron saint of the island. Outside the castle are the Church of the Immacolata and the Cathedral of Assunta. The first was built in 1737 on the location of a smaller chapel dedicated to Saint Francis, and closed after the suppression of Convents in 1806 as well as the nunnery of the Clarisses.The castle was used as Riza's 'Fortified Fortress' in the 2019 film Men in Black: International. It was also mentioned in the book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.