Aragonese Castle, Ischia Camera

Category: Panoramic

Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples. It is almost entirely mountainous, with the highest peak being Mount Epomeo.
The roughly trapezoidal island is formed by a complex volcano. The eruption of the trachytic Green Tuff ignimbrite about 56,000 years ago was followed by caldera formation. Volcanism during the Holocene produced a series of pumiceous tephras, tuff rings, lava domes, and lava flows.

An acropolis site of the Monte Vico area was inhabited from the Bronze Age. Euboean Greeks from Eretria and Chalcis arrived in the 8th century BC to establish an emporium for trade with the Etruscans of the mainland. The Aragonese Castle was built on a rock near the island in 474 BC, by Hiero I of Syracuse.

Today the castle is accessed through a tunnel along which there is a small chapel consecrated to Saint John Joseph of the Cross, the patron saint of the island. The Ferrandino Family, who still live on Ischia, are the rightful owners of the Castello Aragonese.