For classical mythology Procidain Campania, is a flower fallen from the mountain Epomeo of the nearby island of Ischia. Another legend says that in the belly of the island lies the giant Typhoeus, who he wanted to overthrow Jupiter and who instead was thrown to the earth; the giant is now under the basalt that imprisons him, and shakes his 50 heads to free himself. Let's see what to see in Procida.
Procida, Italian capital of culture 2022
1 Procida, where it is located
Geologically the island is linked to Campi Flegrei, the "burning fields” of the ancients Greek and rests on four extinct craters. Procida it is a mystical, magical island, rich in popular culture and with a great tradition of maritime art. Its history is quite eventful. It was colonized by the Greeks of the Gulf of Napoli, then by the colonists Calcidians e Eritreans and in Roman times it was attacked several times. He then had with his lord Giovanni from Procida, an important role in War of the Vespers from Anjou e Aragonese in the XNUMXth century.
2 Procida in history
In Five hundred, Procida suffered repeated attacks from Saracen pirates, who brought the economy to its knees and caused a drastic reduction in the population. In that period a Procida there were less than 2000 inhabitants, all concentrated within the walls of the small building village Earth.
In 1799, during the Neapolitan revolution who established the Neapolitan republic by declaring the power lapsed Bourbon, Commodore Trowbridge with his English soldiers occupied the island and by order of Nelson quelled the riots by killing 12 Procidans.
The period of overseas emigration at the end of the last century then dealt the final blow to the island's economy. The young people from Procida went elsewhere to look for work, and left for South America and for United States. Many sailors sought embarkation on foreign merchant ships and there were few lucky ones who remained in their homeland. All these events have made the character of Procida mild and at the same time courageous, capable of resisting deprivation and devoted to religion. Blood crimes are very rare on the island; its inhabitants are rather shy and are "islanders" almost by choice.
3 Procida today
Procida today is a thriving and rich island, even if this is not apparent. Here all the men are skilled sailors and good fishermen. For fishing they rely on the good will of the seasons, drawing favorable signals from the sky. Even though they know their art perfectly, they are prudent and do not risk anything more than necessary, as good seafaring culture has taught them. While shipowners and captains with large ships challenge the oceans and storms to bring their rich merchant expeditions to a successful conclusion.
In the nineteenth century the Procida sailing ships went around all the seas and sailed up to Australia. In Procida many families have at least one ship of their own, the command of which is usually entrusted to the shipowners themselves. It thus becomes a family-run business, where the men on board carry out the seafaring work while the women, on land, take care of the management of the ship-company. For many months of the year, contact between the crew and family members takes place only via radio, and during rest periods, when everyone is at home, it is a big party.
4 Procida and lines for longlines
It is said that some navigators from Procida, during their long journeys to the East, imported from China a secret recipe for tanning the threads of fishing lines and nets. Two types of thread are thus produced in Procida, one transparent and shiny, unique in Europe, and the other orange, traditional. With this line the fishermen set up their longlines. These are complex systems for deep-sea fishing, which often exceed 500 meters in length and which are armed with a few thousand hooks.
5 Procidans and the sea
I procidani they live next to the sea and naturally they live "from" the sea: and this has made them rich. The well-being economic has led to a demographic increase, and on the island today there are 2700 souls per square kilometre, one of the highest population densities on earth. Life in Procida is quiet, and within the walls of sunny houses you can enjoy family serenity; for the people of Procida the family is very important, perhaps precisely due to the forced separation caused by work on the sea. Some houses are immersed in citrus groves and vineyards, or emerge among jasmine and fragrant plants; the island is a large primitive Mediterranean scrub lying on the yellow and gray tuffs and volcanic basalts of many millennia ago. Procida is a land of great charm.
6 Vivara, the natural reserve island
At the extreme edge of the island there is Vivara. It is an islet of just 34 hectares in surface area, connected to Procida from an aqueduct bridge. Here, in a sort of wreck phytoclimatic Having survived the passage of time, over 500 botanical entities coexist, including many specimens of downy oak and Quercus pubescens. The wild vegetation of this lush natural reserve, crest of an open crater, is completed with the fig treeindia and with the poisonous ferula with yellow umbrellas.
In the eighteenth century Vivara was one of the many royal hunting reserves, governed by very strict measures. Here the King of Naples Charles of Bourbon had a vivar, a rabbit farm, planted. Today wild rabbits are still there and the access rules are always strict, especially after the recent archaeological excavations which brought to light some very important finds of Mycenaean origin. Entry into the natural oasis is only possible from May to October.
From the top of the 109 meters of Vivara, the island of Procida appears flat like a sole, even if the great Latin poet Virgil said "tum sonitu Prochyta alta tremit“. The highest points of the island are Olmo, with its 51 meters and Terra Murata 91 meters high above the sea.
7 Borgo Terra
In the sixteenth century the village of Terra was the only urban nucleus on the island. On the top of Terra Murata, overlooking the sea, surrounded by walls and separated from the daily life of the island, there is the castle that belonged to the abbot of Procida, the cardinal Hymn of Avalos. From this position you dominate the channel that separates the island from the mainland. The castle was once a royal residence. Transformed into a hard prison, the penal institution was then closed in the XNUMXs. The imposing structure has since been abandoned.
8 The corsair Barbarossa and the pirates
Beaten come on winds di Libeccio and Tramontana, the castle was a privileged observation point for sighting Saracens and African barbarians, who with their raids sowed terror and death throughout the Mediterranean. Legend has it that the corsair Khair-ad-din, better known as "Barbarossa", in 1534 attempted an assault on Procida. But it appeared in the sky San Michele Arcangelo who with his shining sword surrounded the citadel in flames to protect it, and with a throw of lightning put the feared Turkish pirate to flight. Even today, some old fishermen from Procida say they have seen on the seabed the chains and anchors that the pirates threw into the water to escape more quickly. History, however, gives us a different version of events. During the assault of 1534, towards the middle of August, the Muslims landed on the island and almost destroyed it.
The neighborhood Terra Murata it was plundered and entirely burned, pirates devastated the crops and reduced many inhabitants to slavery. Even worse was the raid in the last ten days of June 1544, during which the same corsair Barbarossa and his men captured about fifteen hundred people, after burning houses, grain and anything else they found along their way. However, in 1627 the islanders, very devoted to San Micheal, they dedicated a silver statue to him and to Terra Murata they named the Abbey after him.
9 The Abbey of San Michele
Under theSt Michael's Abbey an ancient labyrinth with numerous rooms leads to a pit ten meters deep full of skeletons; along this route there are also two small frescoed chapels, and the visitor will have to navigate between coffins, tombs and old broken and shattered statues. The continuous threat from the Turks caused real terror in the hearts of the population, fueling the need for greater than human protection: divine protection was then invoked. Spontaneous manifestations of popular devotion were thus born and then consolidated over time, like the Holy Week processions.
10 Massimo Troisi and Procida
Procida it has a primitive, refined, at times oriental beauty, with narrow streets and terraced houses, domes, walls and external stairs, white and pink, yellow or light blue houses. Houses embedded in the rock and with arches cleverly designed to capture the heat of the sun at any time of the day. And the "vefio“, a construction system in which each arch has a width and depth proportional to the height and azimuth of the sun above the horizon, in order to be able to convey the majority of the sun's rays to thus cope with the humidity of the rock. Massimo Troisi chose the village of Marina della Corricella to shoot some scenes of the film “IThe Postman".
11 Procida and the fishermen's houses
In Procida the fishermen's houses and the scenic terraces coexist in an extraordinary baroque and popular architecture, giving the place its unmistakable physiognomy. The long beach of black volcanic sand, the rocky overhang of stratified tuff, the citrus groves and vines above, the blue, crystalline, clear sea complete the fascinating scenery.
Also to Marina Grande you experience a great environmental suggestion. It is the place from which nostalgic sailors leave and where women mourn the boats that never return. But it is also a place of great contrast.
There is a lot of people coming and going to board the ferries and hydrofoils that ensure the connection with the mainland; there are the little restaurants on the sea, the boutiques and the parking of public transport. A small Coast Guard patrol boat is moored along the quay. On the side of the boat the drawing of a stork indicates that this is the vehicle used for transporting women giving birth to the mainland, because there is no hospital in Procida. But the patrol boat will soon end its service, replaced by a modern and sophisticated ambulance speedboat, fully equipped for the transport of sick people, complete with resuscitation and coronary unit.
12 The beaches of Procida
La Chiaiolella it is at the southwestern end of the island. Here the houses are low and aligned, and they are close to us beaches of Ciraccio e Ciraciello. We are at Procida beach, on the western side of the island, from where you can see it Ischia and the Mount Epomeo. At the Chiaiolella every summer there is a large crowd of holidaymakers, attracted by the charm of the place and facilitated by the frequency of the vaporettos to Naples.
13 Procida and Graziella
Then every summer, in July and August, there is the sea festival and the election of the “Graziella”, the wild nymph whose children sailed the world, who also fascinated the French poet Alphonse de Lamartine. On this occasion the most beautiful teenagers on the island wear traditional Procida clothes, which many families jealously preserve, and compete in the election of the most beautiful "Graziella" of the year.
14 Procida between Baroque and Byzantine
Walking towards the interior of the island you come across rustic buildings of Byzantine style and small churches with Neapolitan Baroque style portals. And then the coolness and silence, the lights and shadows, the gardens, the vegetable gardens, and many small orchards. And everywhere there is the scent and golden color of lemons; the "bread" lemons of Procida, huge, to be eaten with salad with garlic, oil and mint flavour. Drinking the fresh red wine that the island's winemakers produce in very limited quantities. Is a dream!
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