History Aeolian Islands


History Aeolian Islands

The Aeolian archipelago is made up of 7 islands, originally underwater volcanoes emerging from the waters about 700,000 years ago in the following order: Panarea, Filicudi, Alicudi, Salina, Lipari, Volcano and last Stromboli, which perhaps has about 40,000 years of age. The last appearance was that of Vulcanello (peninsula of the island of Vulcano) that occurred in 183 BC, while the last pumice and obsidian castles on Mount Pelato in Lipari, occurred about 1500 years ago.

The first men settled in the islands of Lipari and Salina a few centuries before the 4000 BC. attracted by the obsidian, the black glass erupted by the volcano of Lipari, an important resource for that time.
This volcano had switched off after a period of intense activity, which is due to the industrially exploited pumice stones today. When the man did not yet know the metal working, the obsidian was the most sharp material that could be dispensed with and was therefore highly sought after. From Lipari it was exported in large quantities and the trade brought to the island an extraordinary prosperity.
Just over a thousand years later, around 3000 BC, when the oxide trade was at its apogee, the smaller islands of the Aeolian archipelago began to inhabit. In this long period, the first people from Sicily were replaced by others, perhaps coming from the Transadrian coasts to take possession of this exceptional source of wealth and settled on that true natural fortress that is the present Castle.
After several centuries of strong economic and demographic recession (II half of the 3rd millennium BC), the Aeolian Islands had another blooming period when populations from continental Greece were allocated to them. They refer to the cycle of legends found in Homer's Odyssey, in the episode of King Eolo who welcomes Ulysses by giving him the twilight of the winds. They emerge shortly after 2000 BC Settlements of round huts, surrounded by a stone wall and mud. Around 900 BC The lush settlement of Lipari almost completely destroyed the whole island.
In the second half of the 8th century BC The phenomenon of the Greek colonization of Southern Italy and Sicily begins. Lipari is colonized by a group of Doric-like Greeks who had to set up a powerful fleet to secure supremacy over the sea.
Lipari stayed for a long time at Siracusa, then fell under the Carthago yoke, which he found when the first Punic war broke out, becoming one of the best Carthaginian naval stations. In 252 a. C. was conquered by the Romans and razed to the ground.
During the Middle Ages, Lipari was a pilgrimage destination, and around the islands a rich and varied traditions flourish. Just then there was a sudden awakening of volcanic activity on the island of Lipari: the crater of Mount Pelato erupted immense masses of pomici, and that of Pirrera, an obsidian passage.
In l839 Lipari was destroyed by an incursion of Muslims who profaned the relics of St. Bartholomew. These, then collected by some old monks, were transported to Salerno and then to Benevento. Lipari remained for almost a few centuries almost totally deserted, until the Normans recaptured Sicily when it became a city of nucleus.
After numerous battles, Lipari was rebuilt and repopulated by Charles V and since then followed the fate of Sicily and the realm of Naples.