Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Although inhabited since the Bronze Age, as a Greek emporium it was founded in the 8th or 9th century BCE, and known as Πιθηκοῦσαι, Pithekoūsai.
Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately east to west and north to south and has about of coastline and a surface area of . It is almost entirely mountainous; the highest peak is Mount Epomeo, at .
Ischia is also the name of the main municipality of the island. The other municipalities of the island are Barano d'Ischia, Casamicciola Terme, Forio, Lacco Ameno and Serrara Fontana. The island is very densely populated, with 61,727 residents as of 2026, corresponding to a population density of 1,326 inhabitants per squared kilometre.
Name
The Greeks called their colony on the island Pithekoussai (Πιθηκοῦσσαι), from which the Latin name Pithecusa was derived. The name has an uncertain etymology. According to OvidOvid, Metamorphoses 14.81-100 and the Alexandrian historian Xenagoras,Xenagoras: On Islands, fr.13 in Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, Volume 4, ed. K. Müller. 1851. p. 528. Available on the Internet Archive the name could derive from pithekos, monkey, and refer to the myth of the Cercopes, inhabitants of the Phlegraean islands transformed by Zeus into monkeys.Ovid, Metamorphoses, 14.82-100 More plausible is the interpretation of Pliny the Elder,Pliny, Nat. Hist. III, VI.82(Mayhoff 1906 text), English translation by Rackham here who instead derives the name from the word πιθός (amphora), a theory supported by archaeological finds which testify to the Greek-Italic production of ceramics (and in particular of wine amphorae) on the island and in the Gulf of Naples.Cuozzo, Mariassunta. 2021. «“Pithecusan workshop” a Pontecagnano». Aristonothos. Rivista Di Studi Sul Mediterraneo Antico, no. 17 (May):39-62. https://doi.org/10.13130/2037-4488/15605.
It has also been proposed that the name describes a characteristic of the island, rich in pine forests.G. Tripodi, F. Vinci, Tracce di una arcaica geografia descrittiva in alcuni toponimi mediterranei. Atti Accad. Peloritana dei Pericolanti, Messina 2010, p. 310. "πιτυόεις" (rich in pines), "πίτυις" (pine cone), and "πίσσα, πίττα" (resin) appear as descriptive terms from which Pithekoussai could derive. The name, therefore, could mean "island of resin," which was an important substance used, among other things, to waterproof wine vessels. The name Aenaria, also used by the Latins, is linked to metallurgical workshops (from aenus, metal) located on the eastern coast, under the castle.
The first evidence of the island's current toponym dates back to the year 812, in a letter from Pope Leo III in which he informs Emperor Charlemagne of devastations that occurred in the area, calling the island Iscla maior: "Ingressi sunt ipsi nefandissimi Mauri [...] in insulam, quae dicitur Iscla maiore, non longe a Neapolitana urbe." Some scholars connect the term to the Phoenician word, and therefore Semitic i-schra, meaning "black island." The Phoenician presence on the island is archaeologically documented from a very ancient era and, as reported by Moscati (an Italian historian), in the spread in Campania and southern Etruria, since the 8th century BC, of objects of Egyptian production or inspiration, "the Phoenician merchants settled in Ischia and then frequented the Tyrrhenian coasts" certainly played a part.
On the other hand, the modern "Island of Ischia" could derive from the Latin "insula visca" – compare the Greek noun (ϝ)ἰξός, (w)ixós, (mistletoe) and the adjective (ϝ)ἰξώδης, (w)ixṓdēs, (viscous, sticky), which as usual have lost the initial digamma. In favor of this theory could be the fact that in the same area, at the foot of Vesuvius covered with pines, the popular name of Herculaneum was "Resìna," perhaps reminiscent of an ancient market for this product, similarly to the toponym "Pizzo" in Calabria, from where the best resin, the "pece brettia" obtained from the pines of the nearby Sila, came from.
Virgil poetically referred to it as Inarime.Virgil, Aen. 9.715-6 This name may derive from the land of Ἀρίμη,R. Castagna, Ischia nella tradizione greca e latina, Imagaenaria Edizioni, Ischia 2003, p. 5-6. which was referenced in the Iliad as the land where Typhon was buried.Iliad 2.780-785 Martianus Capella followed Virgil in this allusive name, which was never in common circulation: the Romans called it Aenaria, the Greeks, Πιθηκοῦσαι, Pithekoūsai.
(In)arime and Pithekousai both appear to derive from words for "monkey" (Etruscan arimos, Ancient Greek πίθηκος, píthēkos, "monkey"). However, Pliny derives the Greek name from the local clay deposits, not from píthēkos; he explains the Latin name Aenaria as connected to a landing by Aeneas.Nat. Hist. III, 6.82 If the island actually was, like Gibraltar, home to a population of monkeys, they were already extinct by historical times as no record of them is mentioned in ancient sources. History Ancient times An acropolis site of the Monte Vico area was inhabited from the Bronze Age, as Mycenaean and Iron Age pottery findings attest. Euboean Greeks from Eretria and Chalcis arrived in the 8th century BC to establish an emporium for trade with the Etruscans of the mainland. This settlement was home to a mixed population of Greeks, Etruscans, and Phoenicians. Because of its fine harbor and the safety from raids afforded by the sea, the settlement of Pithecusae became successful through trade in iron and with mainland Italy; in 700 BC Pithecusae was home to 5,000–10,000 people.
The ceramic Euboean artifact inscribed with a reference to "Nestor's Cup" was discovered in a grave on the island in 1953. Engraved upon the cup are a few lines written in the Greek alphabet. Dating from c. 730 BC, it is one of the most important testimonies to the early Greek alphabet, from which the Latin alphabet descended via the Etruscan alphabet. According to certain scholars the inscription also might be the oldest written reference to the Iliad.
In 474 BC, Hiero I of Syracuse came to the aid of the Cumaeans, who lived on the mainland opposite Ischia, against the Etruscans and defeated them on the sea. He occupied Ischia and the surrounding Parthenopean islands and left behind a garrison to build a fortress before the city of Ischia itself. This was still extant in the Middle Ages, but the original garrison fled before the eruptions of 470 BC and the island was taken over by Neapolitans. The Romans seized Ischia (and Naples) in 322 BC.
From 1st century AD to 16th century
In 6 AD, Augustus restored the island to Naples in exchange for Capri. Ischia suffered from the barbarian invasions, being taken first by the Heruli then by the Ostrogoths, being ultimately absorbed into the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantines gave the island over to Naples in 588 and by 661 it was being administered by a Count liege to the Duke of Naples. The area was devastated by the Saracens in 813 and 847; in 1004 it was occupied by Henry II of Germany; the Norman Roger II of Sicily took it in 1130 granting the island to the Norman Aldoyn de Candida created Count d'Ischia; the island was raided by the Pisans in 1135 and 1137 and subsequently fell under the Hohenstaufen and then Angevin rule. After the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, the island rebelled, recognizing Peter III of Aragon, but was retaken by the Angevins the following year. It was conquered in 1284 by the forces of Aragon and Charles II of Anjou was unable to successfully retake it until 1299.
As a consequence of the island's last eruption in 1302, the population fled to Baia where they remained for 4 years. In 1320 Robert of Anjou and his wife Sancia visited the island and were hosted by Cesare Sterlich, who had been sent by Charles II from the Holy See to govern the island in 1306 and was by this time nearly 100 years of age.
Ischia suffered greatly in the struggles between the Angevin and Durazzo dynasties. It was taken by Charles III of Naples in 1382, retaken by Louis II of Anjou in 1385 and captured yet again by Ladislaus of Naples in 1386; it was sacked by the fleet of the Antipope John XXIII under the command of Gaspare Cossa in 1410 only to be retaken by Ladislaus the following year. In 1422 Joan II gave the island to her adoptive son Alfonso V of Aragon, though, when he fell into disgrace, she retook it with the help of Genoa in 1424. In 1438 Alfonso reoccupied the castle, kicking out all the men and proclaiming it an Aragonese colony, marrying to his garrison the wives and daughters of the expelled. He set about building a bridge linking the castle to the rest of the island and he carved out a large gallery, both of which are still to be seen today. In 1442, he gave the island to one of his favorites, Lucretia d'Alagno, who in turn entrusted the island's governance to her brother-in-law, Giovanni Torella. Upon the death of Alfonso in 1458, they returned the island to the Angevin side. Ferdinand I of Naples ordered Alessandro Sforza to chase Torella out of the castle and gave the island over, in 1462, to Garceraldo Requesens. In 1464, after a brief Torellan insurrection, Marino Caracciolo was set up as governor.
In February 1495, with the arrival of Charles VIII, Ferdinand II landed on the island and took possession of the castle, and, after having killed the disloyal castellan Giusto di Candida with his own hands, left the island under the control of Innico d'Avalos, marquis of Pescara and Vasto, who ably defended the place from the French flotilla. With him came his sister Costanza and through them they founded the D'Avalos dynasty which would last on the island into the 18th century.
16th–18th centuries
Throughout the 16th century, the island suffered the incursions of pirates and Barbary privateers from North Africa: in 1543 and 1544 Hayreddin Barbarossa laid waste to the island, taking 4,000 prisoners in the process. In 1548 and 1552, Ischia was beset by his successor Dragut Rais. With the increasing rarity and diminishing severity of the piratical attacks later in the century and the construction of better defences, the islanders began to venture out of the castle and it was then that the historic centre of the town of Ischia was begun. Even so, many inhabitants still ended up slaves to the pirates, the last known being taken in 1796. During the 1647 revolution of Masaniello, there was an attempted rebellion against the feudal landowners.
Since the 18th century
With the extinction of the D'Avalos line in 1729, the island reverted to state property. In March 1734 it was taken by the Bourbons and administered by a royal governor seated within the castle. The island participated in the short-lived Republic of Naples starting in March 1799 but by April 3 Commodore Thomas Troubridge under the command of Lord Nelson had put down the revolt on Ischia as well as on neighboring Procida. By decree of the governor, many of the rebels were hanged in a square on Procida now called Piazza dei martiri (Square of the Martyrs). Among these was Francesco Buonocore who had received the island to administer from the French Championnet in Naples. On February 13, 1806, the island was occupied by the French and on the 24th was unsuccessfully attacked by the British.
On June 21 and 22, 1809 the islands of Ischia and Procida were attacked by an Anglo-Bourbon fleet. Procida surrendered on June 24 and Ischia soon afterwards. However the British soon returned to their bases in Sicily and Malta. In the 19th century Ischia was a popular travel destination for European nobility.
On July 28, 1883, an earthquake destroyed the villages of Casamicciola Terme and Lacco Ameno.