Thermal Spas in Ischia

The healing waters

 The thermal waters of the island of Ischia were already known and used in ancient times. Many arteifacts housed in the Archaeological Museum of Pithecusae in Lacco Ameno prove that the first Euboeian colonists (8th century BC) appreciated and used them. The Greeks infact resorted to these waters to restore both the body and the spirit, to heal war wounds (in pre-antibiotic times!), so much so that they believed that the waters and the vapours arising from the underground had supernatural powers; it is not by chance that each thermal resort had its own temple dedicated to the gods, as for instance the temple of Apollo at Delphi. If the Greeks first discovered the relaxing and therapeutic properties of thermal waters, the Romans propagated their use building public baths and exploiting the many sources on the island, notably that of “Nitrodi” in Barano close to which stood a temple dedicated to Apollo and the Nitrodiae nymphs.
Thermae and thermalism were again actively taken into consideration during the Renaissance and towards the end of the 15th century a Calabrese doctor and teacher at Naples university, gave an important contribution to modern thermal medicine when he became became fascinated by the climate and the secondary volcanic phenomena (fumaroles and thermal springs). Guessing at the therapuetic potential of thermalism he conducted a meticulous census of the sources on the island, analysed the composition of the waters and conducted a detailed study on how they affecteda number of ailments afflicting his contemporaries.
After Iasolino’s experience, at the beginning of the 17th century, a group of Neapolitan philantropists built the “Pio Monte della Misericordia” in Casamicciola, “the largest (at the time) thermal spa establishment in Europe”, so that people who could not afford the cost of treatments in Ischia might enjoy the therapeutic properties of the local thermal waters, until then reserved to the rich and aristocratic.
Between the 17th and 20th centuries, numerous establiments and hotels were built next to the better known thermal sources and Ischia became the international resort where famous people came not only to treat their ailments, amongst them Giuseppe Garibaldi following the battle of Aspromonte, Camillo Benso count of Cavour and Arturo Toscanini.
Starting with the 1960s and also thanks to Angelo Rizzoli, the island with its sources, opened up to the tourist industry and and an intense scientific activity.