entry Aug
2015
postcard
# 23 - Nisida. This is rather stark since it shows what can
happen —and did happen— to one of the most
famous sites in Naples. Nisida
(as you may read at that link) is the tiny island off the tip of the
cape that separates the bays of Naples and Pozzuoli in
the Gulf of Naples. The original postcard is helpfully
labelled Napoli - Panorama seen from Cape
Posillipo with Nisida. Technically, the suburb
was, and still is, called Bagnoli. The island was
well-known to the Greeks, who called it Nesis.
It marked the entrance to the bay of Pozzuoli (moving
to the right - west - in this image), home of the
Campi Flegrei, Lake Averno, and sites that play such a
colorful role in Greek mythology. It became Nisida
under the Romans. It is here that Brutus plotted the
assassination of Julius Caesar, and it is here that
Cicero says apud illum multas horas in Néside—that
he had a long talk with Brutus after the assassination
to discuss the future of Rome. In much more recent
times, the 1800s, Nisida was the site of a Bourbon
prison, then, within a united Italy, an Italian state
penitentiary, and, then, a reformatory for juvenile
offenders, which, as of quite recent news, is closing,
so the future is up in the air a bit. The side facing
the photographer was the site of a considerable
military naval presence from 1967 to 2013 when Nisida
was the headquarters of the Allied Naval
Forces Southern Europe, part of
the large NATO presence in Naples,
now also removed. So that is more
future up in the air.
It is easy to date this card within a
few years, but not precisely. As part of the Risanamento, the
grand plan of urban renewal that lasted from 1885
to 1915, this area, Bagnoli, way out here some
miles from main body of Naples, was radically
transformed from a bucolic beach community to a
hub of new industry. One of the first things they
did is evident in this photo, not a postcard, but
a recent photo shot from the road on the left that
you see (in the postcard image) as it starts up
the hill to the Posillipo height. They joined the
island to the mainland by a causeway. That is
known to have happened "at the turn of the
century" just before the industrialization of
Bagnoli swung into high gear. Other markers are
not helpful. That road on the left was built in
the 1830s; photography, itself, was not developed
to the quality of this postcard until the 1880s,
so we can leave it at 1900.
Early industrialization in many parts of
the world was seen as a boon, yet, we now know what
people in 1910 could not have known. I cite my own
entry at this link:When the new Ilva (later Italsider) steel mill opened in 1910, it was the result of nine years of planning and construction. In 1901 it must have seemed a grand idea, a vision of the future; after all, industry was the future. Bagnoli was just one of many places on planet Earth eager to reap the marvels of the 19th century—steam engines, great ships, electricity, tall buildings, new railways, and new-fangled motor cars. (Some even foresaw air travel for the masses—across the oceans in total comfort! Well, they got part of that right.) You needed steel for all that. It is only through the unfair and perfect judgments of hindsight that we want to scream back through time to warn them of world wars, depressions, atomic bombs, post-industrialism and its evil twin, Urban Blight—the abandoned factories, rusted bridges and decaying inner cities.
Nisida (below) seen from the
water's
edge at Bagnoli, one kilometer away.
edge at Bagnoli, one kilometer away.
That urban blight looks like what you
see in the photo (above, right). Now that
we are in the post-industrial age, they have
attempted to undo all of that. Tear down the steel
mill —they
did that 20 years ago. Make something out of it —that
has been an on-again, off-again chain of small successes and disastrous failures.
(There are a number of entries in the B-section of the index
under "Bagnoli" if you are interested in how that is
going.) The entries go back to 2003. Nisida, itself,
it is fair to say, has been somewhat of an onlooker
to the urban blight and stuttering attempts at urban
renewal. It has, for the most part, harbored state
correctional facilities or naval facilities. The
hope is that the area of Bagnoli leading up to the
causeway and then along the causeway leading up to
the island, itself, will continue to provide space
for private pleasure craft and beach facilities.
Nisida, itself, the actual island? —that is
hard to say. Ideally, in terms of its long
history, it would fit into some sort of a
cultural-heritage establishment and join
other such sites spread across the Bay of
Pozzuoli to Baia and Capo Miseno at the
western end of the bay. to urban portal to all period postcards from table at the top of this page
© 2002 - 2023