Monte di Procida - Historical Notes Taken from the writings of Antonio Gnolfo.
“Monte di Procida ancient Miseno” (Valtrend, Pozzuoli 2003), this chapter traces the history of Monte di Procida from its origins to municipal autonomy, which occurred on January 27, 1907.
1 Protoitalic and Italian civilization
When in the third millennium BC, the Sicana-Mediterranean civilization turned at sunset, the empires of the Sumerians and the Egyptians were rosing in the east. Italy was then invaded, in various waves, by Indo-European peoples. The Opics built several villages in the Plegraean Fields, one at the present Cappella and another, perhaps on the Monte; they had their political center in Cuma. To the commercial establishments created in the Plegraean Fields by Aegean sailors, around the 9th century B.C., it followed a real migratory current of Greek families that, over the years, merged with the people of the place, creating the new Italian civilization, leaven for rapid social and civil development. Rome itself adopted the alphabet and coinage of Cuma and it was inspired by its legislation, its philosophy, its cults. So Cuma was a master of civilisation and a mighty one, but the basis of her glory was Miseno with its harbour and Mount. The port of Miseno, with its dual basin, constituted the safest and most comfortable refuge for rowing in the Tyrrhenian Sea and it gave the Cuman State an economic and military function of the first order. The Mount, dominating the only maritime route followed by the ancient rowing ships, allowed the Cuman Republic the monopoly of the metal trade, which took place between Tuscany and the Near East. The fertility of the soil finally made Cuma and Miseno the nearest and most convenient granary market for Rome. With the beginning of the ancient Age, we have the first historical documents on the life of the Mount. The archaeologist De Jorio in the "Guide of Pozzuoli", talking about the "ancient magnificent… constructions" that existed in the northern and southern part of Our hill, concluded: "they were found far from Cuma, on the highest of the hills, of the tombs, and what is most elegant hypogea sunk in the tuff. The fact shows that the ancients, both Greeks and Romans, had like us their rural aedicules with family sepulchres adjacent in their houses of delights".
2 From Romanity to Christianity
The importance of Miseno, its harbour and the Mount, grew definitively when the Romans, once defeated Etruscans, Samnites and Carthaginians, constituted at Maremorto the naval base of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Miseno became "Municipium". There were established priestly colleges and erected temples, one of which at Torre di Cappella, dedicated to Minerva; there were opened public baths and a theater with the auditorium leaning on the eastern slopes of the Mount; it was also established a camp for sailors' exercises in Miliscola. Patrician and imperial villas were built in Torregaveta, above Gaveta, near Le Croci, Monte Grillo and other scenic places. The countryside of Miseno, with its harbour and the Mount, soon became the political center of the Empire, Baia became the "pusilla Roma" of society, while Cuma was beginning its decline.
3 The Castrum
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Misenus formed, within the Duchy of Naples, a county, on which also Procida depended. The historians called it Castrum. Many blackhouses stood on the Mount: in Torregaveta, Gaveta, San Martino, Torrione and perhaps Monte Grillo. The fortified belt was completed by the tower of Capo Miseno and Torre di Cappella. In the 12th century, the fortress of the Mount was called "Castrum Sancti Martini", from the name of a local Church, which stood on the western slope. Lombards and Popes, Byzantines and Arabs disputed the possession of the "Castrum" of Monte di Procida which, according to some authors, belonged, in fact, to the Church, even before the Papal States assumed its legal existence.
4 Barbarian invasions
The continuous wars between Eruls and Ostrogoths, Byzantines and Lombards and the repeated invasions and devastations slowly weakened life in the cities and on the acropolis of Miseno, which was reduced to a heap of ruins. The few families left on the Mount had to turn to the nearby island for their religious and civil needs and their fate followed until 1907. The Mount, following the fate of Procida, to which it was connected administratively, had as first feudatory Giovanni da Procida: a doctor from Salerno, invested in the 8th century of the barony of the same name by the King of Sicily.
5 The Revival
The 14th century marked the beginning of the flourishing of life on the Mount, due to the flow of population from Procida, due to the terrible raids, operated by Arab and Turkish pirates, who destroyed the island. Since the resurgent suburb of the Mount enjoyed a special "duty free", the most widely consumed kinds, such as bread, flour, wheat and wine, were cheaper than in the neighboring countries of Campania. The increase in population led to the enlargement of the Church, to which was added a second nave in 1742.
6 The Price of freedom
The resurgence of life on the Mount attracted the interest of the tax and the town of Pozzuoli; but the archbishopric of Naples claimed its rights on the land that possessed on it. Accused of smuggling to the detriment of Puteolan finances, the inhabitants of the Mount had to support secular struggles to preserve their independence and save themselves from the aims of annexation.
7 The Parthenopean Republic
Between disputes and judges the life of the Mount developed for the laboriousness of its citizens, when the breath of renewal of the French Revolution, swept away also from Naples the remnants of medieval feudalism. The inhabitants of Monte proclaimed themselves Jacobins, that means in favor of the new republican order. A battery of cannons was placed outside the tower to beat Procida, which had been occupied by the English fleet; and in the waters of Monte, near the shoal of Torrione, the navy of the Parthenopean republic, inferior in number, managed to counter the passage to the enemy ships. In mid-June 1799, the Neapolitan republic fell, assaulted by the British and Turks, by Tuscans and Romans, by Russians and Iazzars. Naples then returned to the Bourbons. In the period of the republic, also the inhabitants of Monte had their tree of freedom: an elm tree that stood before the Church of the Assumption. After the return of the Bourbons, a citizen of the Mount was hanged to that tree: Stefano Coppola, whose name is written on the commemorative plaque erected in Procida, in Piazza dei Martiri.
8 From the Bourbon restoration to autonomy
The countryside of Monte is linked to the end of the French decade in the reign of Naples. In the night between the 4th and the 5th September some Bourbon ships crossed in waters of Monte di Procida, to follow Francesco of Gaeta; but the commanders did not want to obey him and preferred to bring their contribution to the cause of Unity. The escape of Francesco the 2nd was followed by the proclamation of Vittorio Emanuele the 2nd as King of Italy in the Phlegraean Fields. The new Savoy monarchy, however, betrayed the expectations of poor people and workers in general. On the 17th July the also the people of Monte expressed their discontent and, to quell the riots, it was necessary the intervention of the soldiers. Meanwhile, the population was growing. By the hundred inhabitants of the Middle Ages, it had passed to a thousand souls in the 1776, to 3665 in the 1881, to 4000 in the 1893. It was created the rolling stock for Torregaveta, opened a pharmacy, established the school; there was agreement for telegraph and mail. Then, at the beginning of the 1900, the inhabitants asked the government to be able to stand as an autonomous municipality. The right aspirations of our fathers, however, were hindered by the caste of Procida, which drew substantial privileges from Monte. Its inhabitants wanted to give the new municipality the name of "Nuova Cuma", but they had to renounce it for the opposition of the city council of Procida and had to accept the current name of "Monte di Procida". On the 27th January 1907, the Mount was officially elevated to the rank of autonomous municipality.
9 Ludovico Quandel and the autonomy
He was patriarch of the administrative autonomy of Monte di Procida and valiant officer of the army of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, among the protagonists of the siege of Gaeta, the cross of Knight of Merit of the Constantinian Order of San Giorgio was awarded to him. The Quandel, after his imprisonment and release, considered his military value, was invited to join the army of the Kingdom of Italy, but preferred to retire to private life at Monte di Procida, where he was the main architect of the administrative autonomy of the Phlegraean municipality in 1907. He never wanted to run for mayor of the newborn City to not swear allegiance to the new Savoy monarchy.
