Capri - History of the Island

Geological origins

Capri is part of the Western edge of a wide Bahamian-type Mesozoic carbonate platform known as the Campania-Lucania platform which extends from the Lepini Mountains in the Lazio region of Italy, to the Massif of the Calabrian Pollino Nature Reserve.
The position of the exposed earth has changed considerably with the passing of time and it is thought that the present conformation was established approximately 40-50 million years ago during the Eocene.
According to the theory of continental drift, all islands were originally part of a single block with much of the land now visible once being under the level of the water. Carbonate platforms would have been present at the level of the surface of the water, including the Campania-Lucania which was involved in the formation of the island of Capri.
Between the Langhian and the upper Pliocene, the region was involved in a series of tectonic phases and a subsequent relaxing phase with Capri joined to the Sorrentine Peninsula by a thin strip of land.
This connection allowed large Pleistocene mammals to reach the island.
Subsequently there was a phase when Capri was submerged, a phase which can be verified by the numerous tunnels of mollusks present in Anacapri.
The rocks which form the island date back to the Jurassic and Cretaceous eras, from 65 to 190 million years ago. The oldest areas are Cala Ventroso, Grotta delle Felci and the Migliera.
Capri is now formed by two rocky massifs: the Capo to the East and the Solaro to the West divided by a deep depression on which the urban area is built.

Palaeolithic Age: the findings under the Hotel Quisisana

On the Island of Capri, in the early nineteen hundreds, during digging work for the enlargement of the Hotel Quisisana, a layer of red clay mixed with mud, weapons, equipment and bones from the Paleolithic Era was exposed five meters below ground level. These findings had been covered in ashes and lapillus of volcanic origin, and have therefore been dated prior to the eruptions of the Flegree area.
The presence of numerous bones of pre-historic animals would indicate a difference in climate and geological characteristics, supporting the hypothesis that the Island of Capri was once attached to the mainland.
In addition, under Punta Campanella, the presence of an isthmus has been found with evident signs of periods of immersion.
Bones of large mammals found on the island include those of the mammoth, cave bear, hippopotamus, deer, pig, rhinoceros, and dog. Traces of these species, representative of varying climates, leads to the belief that either the animals co-existed, or, that deposits or diverse origin had mixed together in the layer of clay. The weapons, made from chips of quartzite and flint stone - materials not found on the Island of Capri - originate from the Quaternary, mankind’s hunter-gatherer era. These findings further support the hypothesis that Capri was once was part of a larger complex, characterized by water flows and woodlands.
The exhibits are held in the Centro Caprense Ignazio Cero, in the Anthropological department of Naples and the Prehistoric Museum of Rome.

Neolithic and Bronze Age

Traces of the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age on Capri have been found principally in the Grotta delle Felci. Capri’s Grotta delle Felci is considered to be one of Italy’s most important prehistoric sites. Inside, following numerous excavations initiated at the end of the eighteen hundreds, an impressive quantity of material has been found dating from the Neolithic to Bronze Age.
The Grotta delle Felci was used by primitive man, initially as a place of cult worship and as a burial ground, and subsequently as a place where to shelter during adverse weather conditions.
In the inner most part of the Grotta delle Felci, the remains of a number of burials were found together with corresponding funeral paraphernalia, including small millstones and ceramic artifacts.
There is a notable presence of crockery made from red clay, and pale and shiny black ceramic. Other traces of mankind from the Neolithic and Bronze Age have been found in other areas of Capri and Anacapri: namely Due Golfi, Tiberio, Tragara, Castiglione, Campo di Prisco and Campitello.

Greek period

The fragmentary and vague historical sources at our disposal do not permit us to reconstruct with precision the Greek period on Capri.
Traces of the presence of Greeks on the Island of Capri are the Greek walls, a polygonal work close to the Piazzetta; the Phoenician Steps, a long flight of steps carved in to the rock face, which connects Marina Grande with Anacapri; and various Epigraphs in the stone.
Much of the literary documentation would seems to be based on traditions of a mythical character. Some citations mention a settlement of the ancient pre-Hellenic Teleboi population, and the presence of two towns, difficult to identify.

Roman Period

Capri started occupying an important role in the political and military matters of the Roman Empire when Ottaviano, not yet Augustus, landed here in 29 BC and, struck by the incredible beauty of the island, took it from Naples, in exchange for Ischia.
After Ottaviano, the Emperor Tiberius resided on the island for a decade and it was from Capri that he managed the interests of the Empire.
The presence of the two emperors on Capri notably influenced the island architecture and the development of the urban area.
The advanced engineering and building capabilities of the Romans, resulted in the construction of the port, sophisticated drainage and water storage systems, farms, habitations, and the twelve Imperial villas listed in the nineteenth century by the native historian, Rosario Mangoni.
Fine examples of the Roman period are Villa Jovis, Villa Palazzo a Mare and Villa Damecuta, whilst, in a much less evident form, one finds traces of the era in Villa Tragara, Villa d’Unghia Marina, Villa del Colle San Michele, Villa del Castiglione, Villa Truglio a Marina Grande, Villa di Aiano, Villa di Capo di Monte (now Villa San Michele), Villa di Timberino and Villa di Monticello in Anacapri.

The Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages the Island of Capri underwent a number of invasions by the Saracens, who habitually pillaged the towns of Southern Italy and deported the inhabitants as slaves.
The fear of the invaders led the population of Capri to elect San Costanzo as guardian of the Island, and, indeed, the saint is almost always depicted in the act of turning away the pirates. During the invasions, the indigenous population used to hide in the caves, the largest of which was the Grotta del Monte Castiglione.
Only towards the close of the twelfth century were the first walled fortresses were built to defend the population.
Until 1860 Capri came under the rule of Naples. It had been traded on various occasions up until 1445 when it was granted the Right of Inalienability, meaning that it could no longer be handed over “in feudo”.
With the Angevins Capri obtained certain benefits such as the right to fish along the Gaeta and Salerno coasts without having to pay the custom duties to the court, the possibility to elect its own administrative representatives and to import goods from Naples which were not available on the island, such as wheat. Towards 1300, with the foundation of the Charterhouse, the Carthusian monks, using the powers conferred on them by Pope Gregory XI, introduced a series of heavy tax duties which caused great malcontent in the population and consequent rioting.

Capri in the 16th and 17th Centuries

In the 16th Century Capri was an important strategic base for the control of Southern Italy and it was continually attacked by the Ottoman fleets.
In 1535, following an extremely violent attack, the Turkish pirate, Char-ad-din, alias Barba Rossa or Red Beard, conquered Capri and set fire to the Castle, from that time onwards known as Barbarossa Castle.
A similar fait awaited the Charterhouse, assaulted by the troops of the Admiral Dragut in 1553. Not until 1571, with the battle of Lepanto, did the united navies of the Christian States manage to defeat the Ottoman Forces.
The first written documents regarding the Island of Capri date back to the 1500s, example of which Fabio Giordano’s manuscript of 1570.
In the 17th Century Capri was hit by the plague which rampaged through the whole of Italy in that period. The disease wiped out a large percentage of the population, sparing just 405 of the 755 inhabitants of Capri and 772 of the 883 residents of Anacapri.
In this period the economy of Capri was based on fishing and the hunting of Quails and other migratory birds which, twice a year, flew over the island.

Capri in the 18th Century

In the seventeen hundreds Naples came under the rule of the Bourbon dynasty. This period saw the construction of the Reggia Caserta Palace, Capodimonte, Portici and the San Carlo Theatre, this latter the city of Naples’ most important theatre to this very day.
Naples gained a reputation as a city of great cultural importance with the resumption of excavation work at Herculaneum, and the initiation of those of Pompei and Stabia, the opening of the Archaeological museum and the Herculaneum Academy.
As a consequence scholars, intellectuals and artists all gravitated around the court, especially after the union of Ferdinando IV with the refined and highly cultured Maria Carolina of Austria.
The couple spent a great deal of their time on the Island of Capri, despite the often rough crossings which made the locality difficult to reach.
It was in this period that a first inventory of the ruins of Capri was made, although a considerable part of the findings, deemed property of the Monarchy, were transported to the Bourbon Museum and sold to dealers and collectors. Examples of such trading are the marble altar found in Palazzo a Mare and today conserved in the British Museum, and the four columns removed from the Church of San Costanzo and placed in the Reggia Caserta Palace.
Seventeenth century Capri underwent a long period of recession and poverty due to the excessive economic and moral powers exercised by the clergy who imposed high taxation and capital punishment.
Informed of the situation, the Bourbons granted the inhabitants of Capri certain privileges such as licenses for fire arms and the right to import wheat and flour, goods which were not produced on the island.

From the 19th Century to the present day

In the eighteen hundreds the name “Capri” began to become known in the rest of the world. Initially it owed its fame to its strategic position for the control of Southern Italy and as the territory of bitter fighting between the French of Napoleon’s Empire, who had succeeded the Bourbons, and the British.
It was in this period that numerous Forts along the Island perimeters were built, seriously compromising the Roman ruins which had managed to survived until that time.
Some years later, Capri’s fame increased with the growing interest in travel, which brought to the island the first of a long stream of foreign visitors.
Capri became a place where to dedicate oneself to otium and the art of hospitality.
The new spirit of the population was largely consequence of the closure of the convents, the abolition of the bishopric, declared by Ferdinando IV in 1815 on his returned to Naples as Ferdinando I, King of the Two Sicilies, and by the end of the military occupation: all changes which freed the inhabitants of Capri from the moral and economic restraints and the general depression of the past.
In the first half of the nineteenth century the landscape artists of the Posillipo school arrived in Capri, artists such as Giacinto Gigante, Giuseppe Casciaro, Marco De Gregorio and Angelo Viviani.
The first hotel on the island was opened by the solicitor Pagano, who transformed his own home in Hotel Pagano. During this century guests included artists from all over the world, predominantly Germans belonging to the moneyless Bohemian movement of the time.
Only towards the end of the century, with the opening of the Quisisana, did a tourism comprised of members of the various royal families, aristocrats, politicians and industrialists arrive on the island on Capri.
The fortune of the Island of Capri’s hospitality industry has been in it’s ability to welcome, with the same care and discretion, guests of every social extraction.
Among those to have stayed on the Island of Capri we find the Russian exile Massimo Gorkij; the German artist Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach; Miradois – the monk who lived in the Cave of Matromania; Count Jacques Fersen, a true dandy of extremely open moral conduct; the writer Norman Douglas.
Axel Munthe, the famous Swedish Physician, also moved to the Island and built his Villa San Michele here. He highly praised Capri in his novel “The History of San Michele”.
In the mid nineteen hundreds, frequent visitors to Capri included the writers Moravia, Ungaretti, Pratolini, Malaparte, and exponents of the literary avant guarde such as the futurists Martinetti, Trampolini, Depero and Clavel who published their “Manifesto della Bellezza di Capri” and elected the island the magnet for artists from every corner of the world.
From the nineteen fifties onwards Capri became the world capital of the Cafč Society: this is when the season of fashionable parties, gala dinners in fine evening wear and ostentatious luxury began.
Today Capri remains a much desired and dreamt of destination, visited by tourists from all over the world. Tourists come to the island just for the day or stay much longer, sitting in the Piazzetta in the hope of escaping anonymity. In the solitary lanes, one can still come across the occasional artist painting, writing or simply absorbing the energy of the island so as to transform it into their next book, album or film.