From April 29th until May 1st, my friend Ella and I had the opportunity to travel to Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples, through Carleton’s Boyd-Niles Travel Fellowship. We were there to study the Castello Aragonese d’Ischia, a fortified castle on a large rock just off the coast of one of Ischia’s largest towns.
The rock has held fortifications since the 5th century BCE, but in its current state most visibly represents the 15th century construction projects undertaken after Alfonso of Aragon conquered the island and the castle in 1423. Throughout this time, it not only served as a site of state power projection over the island and the Bay of Naples, but also as a place of popular safety. When pirates threatened the coasts of Ischia, invading navies crossed the horizon, or regional volcanoes began erupting, people from across the island would be given refuge in the castle’s walls to wait out the threat.
The castle is incredibly well-preserved to this day, and the island has put an immense amount of effort into its presentation to the public. You can walk through the vast majority of the grounds on a planned but unguided route; essentially only the dilapidated upper ramparts and tower are inaccessible as of our visit. The route’s stops range from the ruins of a classical Roman-era temple to frescoed medieval crypts. There is even a chamber preserved where Poor Clare nuns would leave the corpses of their dead sisters on thrones with holes on the seats. Originally, pots would be placed under the holes to collect the humors of the decaying sisters.
While the site is remarkably preserved and the route is incredibly interesting, Ella and I both agreed that more detailed descriptive labels for the sites would have been useful. Oftentimes, dates and contextualizing information were completely omitted. Still, it was one of the greatest public history sites I’ve ever visited, and I still wasn’t tired of it after almost four hours of touring the site.
We spent the rest of our trip touring the island. We actually circumnavigated the entire coastline thanks to a mislabeled bus, but it turned out to be a wonderful adventure. The voyage offered the opportunity to see just how populated and lived on the island truly was. While there is certainly a tourist presence in Ischia, there is also a much larger population of locals living their normal lives among gorgeous volcanic cliffs and medieval fortresses.
It was a wonderful trip, and both Ella and I are eternally grateful to Carleton and the Medieval and Renaissance Department for making it possible. It was one of the defining weekends of my entire OCS in Italy, and I’m already eagerly awaiting the day I can return to the island. For now, a project or two on it when back at Carleton will have to do!