Procida, Italy
It is the smallest of the islands in the Gulf of Naples, less than four square kilometres, and is located halfway between the city and the island of Ischia. The third is the famous Capri, further south. According to Pliny and Strabo, Procida was separated from the mainland because of a great earthquake that took place during the eruption of Mount Epomeo, in Ischia.
The first thing that the traveller knows about Procida is its Marina Grande, where the ferry terminals intersect with the terraces of restaurants, fishmongers and other businesses. The hustle and bustle increases with the arrival or departure of boats, with minibuses, motorcycles and bicycles in an incessant traffic of humanities frantically dragging their suitcases. A sign in a bar points the directions that separate the cruel world from the expectation of having a beer. The Marina Grande continues, more quiet, towards the east, where it was known as the Marina di Sancio Cattolico or Sènt'Cò. There are about seven hundred meters of promenade that exposes the eclectic facades of the brightly coloured houses and some more restaurants towards the marina. In the background, behind the breakwater, is Lingua Beach, in the shadow of the walls of Terra Fermata, the old citadel. The space that opens in the Marina Grande square separates both ports and in it emerges the church of Maria Santíssima della Pietà, an oratory that was founded by the fishermen guild at the beginning of the 17th century. In the same square begins Via Vittorio Emanuele, which, extending into the Via Giovanni di Procida, runs longitudinally across the entire island, completely flanked by houses, ancient palaces and walls that protect from prying eyes. Along the narrow street, as in most of the streets on the island, the vehicles, which are generally small, circulate with their mirrors retracted and even more than one has already lost one of them; the buses are, for inevitable reasons of space, minibuses. Along the way there are various old palaces from the 17th century and other churches from the same period: the Palazzo Lubrano di Vavaria, which was the first headquarters of the Regio Istituto Nautico, the church of Sant'Antonio Abate, the Palazzo Scotti, the church of San Tommaso d'Aquino.
Even at the beginning of Vittorio Emanuele, in front of the church of San Leonardo, a street opens up to the left, which is Via Príncipe Umberto. In it there are old entrances to houses that are accessed by a stone staircase, in some you can guess, in the background, a virgin protected in a small chapel. Shortly before finishing the slope, you reach Piazza dei Martiri, which was formerly called, as the neighbourhood itself, Sèmmarèzio, but was also known simply as Spassygio, a transit area. Here were built the first houses outside the citadel. It is still an elevated area with splendid views over the Marina Corricella, one of the most representative images of Procida. In the square, the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie Incoronata, from the 16th century, stands out for its large dome with three-lobed windows and topped by another smaller dome. The bell tower has a clock and, above it, a small pair of bells that ring every quarter of an hour. Opposite is the Palazzo Mignano of Iorio, with its unmistakable and weathered façade painted in dark red and its numerous balconies closed by green shutters. In the same square is the tombstone that commemorates the names of the most notable martyrs of 1799; sixteen were hanged there, for their defence of the Parthenopean or Neapolitan Republic, a product of the export of the French Revolution to Italy. Next to it stands the statue dedicated to Antonio Scialoia, economist and politician of the Italian Risorgimento, who died on the island in 1877. Among the narrow streets of Sèmmarèzio is the Casale Vascello, built in the 16th century and is a typical example of architecture premises formed by a group of attached houses integrated into an enclosure with a common courtyard.
Climbing the stretch of hill that continues beyond Piazza dei Martiri, you reach the citadel, the Terra Murata, which rises more than ninety meters above sea level. Shortly before there is a good viewpoint, decorated with a pair of old cannons, that looks over Corricella, next to the church of Santa Margherita Nuova, a former convent now deconsecrated. Terra Murata took advantage of the natural bastion that formed the promontory to fortify it, turning it into an authentic citadel. This has only one entrance, the covered passageway of the Salita Castello. Inside it there is a small chapel dedicated to Nostra Signora del Carmelo, where a dim light allows us to see a small altar where there are some candles, a cross, two hanging incense burners and a portrait of the virgin half hidden by the light itself. After crossing the threshold, to the left is the Palazzo dil Cardinale d'Aragona, which was the old prison. In the main square is the peace court and, in the background, the Palazzo d'Avalos, which was the seat of the Neapolitan governors. To the right of the square, the Porta di Mezz'omo leads to the highest area of Terra Murata, which is the inhabited part; Piazza Guarracino concentrates the homes with exterior stairs that lead to the first floors, clothes hanging on the balconies and niches with the figure of the archangel. In this small labyrinth stands the Abazzia di San Michele Arcangelo, the oldest religious construction on the island. Traces from the 11th century of the first Benedictine foundation have been found, destroyed and rebuilt on numerous occasions. The large circular dome dominates the complex, the façade has a wide arched door with a triangular pediment above and a stylized bell tower. The abbey currently houses a small museum and a library with more than eight thousand volumes. Inside the church you can admire an oil painting by Nicola Russo from the late 17th century, it is the Apparition of Saint Michael, in which the archangel repels the Berber pirates who attack the island. A few steps away, a viewpoint provides a good panoramic view of the Gulf of Naples, with Mount Procida, Cape Miseno and Vesuvius in the background.
Back in Piazza dei Martiri, descending via San Rocco, you soon reach the namesake church. It is a small and dilapidated temple in front of the slope that leads towards Corricella, the Discesa Graziella. There are no vehicles in the Marina Corricella, as it can only be accessed by the aforementioned descent, which ends in a staircase, or by another endless succession of steps at the opposite end of the port. They say that the name comes from the Greek, from chora kalé, or beautiful town; and the ensemble is, formed as it is by a succession of buildings that seem to be mounted vertically on top of each other, with the variety of colours and the dome of the Incoronata above the entire complex. The Marina Corricella is still a fishermen neighbourhood, they let their nets dry in the sun on the dock and there, behind the two breakwaters, they moor the boats. The architecture of their houses is inspired by that of North Africa, Tunisia, and Libya, full of arches and external staircases, all unequal. Corricella is without a doubt the most photogenic place on the island. That it was a poor neighbourhood is attested by the fact that most families have relatives who emigrated to America.
Climbing the steep southern staircase you reach Via Marcello Scotti which merges again into Vittorio Emanuele. Leaving behind a couple of churches, San Giacomo and Sant'Antonio Abate, you soon reach the Piazza del Olmo, which owes its name to the ancient presence of one of these trees, of which only the name remains. This is a small, very small, commercial hub; there is a pharmacy, a supermarket, a winery, a fruit shop, a florist, a bar and a tobacconist. Nothing is missing. Taking the street on the right, via Flavio Gioia, you end up reaching the western coast, the belvedere above Ciraccio. Taking the one on the left, via Pizzaco, there is a steep staircase, accompanied by a drainage canal that leads to Chaia beach. Continuing along the road is the belvedere dedicated to Elsa Morante, from where there is another good perspective of the Corricella. Beyond, at the end, is Pizzaco point.
Continuing towards the south of Piazza del Olmo, you reach another lively fork, where with some shops, are the old Palazzo Russi di Catanzo, also from the 17th century, and the church of Sant'Antonio de Padova. The left arm of the fork leads towards the Centane neighbourhood, where the old Palazzo Guarracino is located, today housing a gym. From here or from the aforementioned fork, you finally reach Marina Chiaiolella, where recreational boats predominate over fishing ones. Fishing activity has been, for the most part, transformed into tourism. The restaurants face the port while the bars and hammocks spread out over the lido. On the hill stands the old fortified church of the Dominicans, it is Santa Margherita Vecchia, which was abandoned due to the attacks of the pirates and moved to Santa Margherita Nuova, next to Terra Murata. To the south of the lido, a long bridge connects Procida with Vivara, an islet that does not occupy even half a square kilometre and was part of a volcanic crater, one of the five that formed the island. Vivara is currently a protected area as Riserva Naturalle dello Stato.
Despite its size, Procida has generated and inspired many literatures. In 1852 Alphonse de Lamartine published Graziella, a story of a youthful trip to southern Italy where the protagonist meets a teenager from the island with whom he falls in love. In the 20th century, Roman writer Elsa Morante wrote her second novel, L'Isola di Arturo, taking the island as the setting in which a young man spends his entire adolescence. Today, in some parts of the island, signs have been installed reminding us some passages of the novel: “Di sotto il passaggio a volta della porta, lugubre corridoio affrescato sull’intonaco, dall’alto in basso, di croci di un nero polveroso, si usciva sulla Piazza Centrale della Terra Murata”. (“Below the door’s arched passage, a gloomy hall with smoky black crosses painted on the plaster, leads to the Central Square of Terra Murata”.)
In 1994, Procida was also the setting for the filming of some scenes from Il Postino, or Pablo Neruda's Postman, by Michael Radford. The feature film recreates the exile of the Chilean poet in southern Italy along 1952, although actually he was in Naples and Capri. The film, starring Massimo Troisi, Philippe Noiret and Maria Grazia Cuccinota, was filmed on the Aeolian island of Salina, in the Cinecittà studios, in Rome, and in the Marina Corricella and the Pozzo Vecchio beach, in Procida.
© J.L.Nicolas
