Nisida is a
volcanic islet of the
Flegrean Islands
The Phlegraean Islands ( it, Isole Flegree ; nap, Isule Flegree) are an archipelago in the Gulf of Naples and the Campania region of southern Italy.
The name is derived from the common affiliation to the geologic area of the Phlegraean Fields ...
archipelago, in southern
Italy. It lies at a very short distance from
Cape Posillipo
Posillipo (; nap, Pusilleco ) is an affluent residential quarter of Naples, southern Italy, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples.
From the 1st century BC the Bay of Naples witnessed the rise of villas constructed by elite Roma ...
, just north of
Naples; it is now connected to the mainland by a stone bridge. The islet is almost circular, with a flooded crater forming the bay of Porto Paone on the southwest coast. It has a diameter of about and a highest altitude of .
The name of the island comes from the Greek for "islet" (small island), νησίς, for which the
accusative
The accusative case ( abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘th ...
was ''nesida''.
Overview
In ancient times
Lucius Licinius Lucullus built a villa on Nisida, and also
Marcus Iunius Brutus had a holiday villa there.
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
's letters record him visiting Brutus there, and it was there that Brutus's wife
Porcia, the daughter of
Cato Uticensis, committed suicide. He also may have agreed with
Cassius on the
assassination of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March (15 March) of 44 BC during a meeting of the Senate at the Curia of Pompey of the Theatre of Pompey in Rome where the senators stabbed Caesar 23 ...
there. The claim is made that some of archaeological remains on Nisida are, indeed, those of the villa of Brutus. There may have been a monastery there in the 7th century (see below). In the 16th century a castle was built, which was subsequently a fief of the
Macedonio family.
In the 19th century, Nisida was the site of an infamous
Bourbon Bourbon may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash
* Bourbon barrel aged beer, a type of beer aged in bourbon barrels
* Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit
* A beer produced by B ...
prison that gained notoriety when - after a visit to the prison in 1851 -
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
wrote his ''Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen on the State Prosecutions of the Neapolitan Government'', exposing the harsh conditions. In these letters, Gladstone coined the now famous description of the
Kingdom of Two Sicilies as "the negation of God erected into a system of Government." Indignation throughout Europe was partially responsible for the at least partial improvement of the conditions in the prison.
During the
Second World War, the island was occupied by
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
and became "55 Military Prison". At least one execution of a criminal took place there during this time: 1474762 Gunner G.T. Huckell of the
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
was executed by
firing squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...
on Nisida at 7.31 am on 23 May 1944. He was 26 years old and had been convicted of murdering and robbing an Italian civilian named Rudolfo Mastrominico. Huckell was subsequently buried in Plot II, Row E, Grave 3 at Naples War Cemetery.
From 1946 through 1961 the island was home to the
Accademia Aeronautica
The Accademia Aeronautica is the Italian Air Force Academy, the institute for the training of Air Force officers. It's located in Pozzuoli in the province of Naples, in the Italian region of Campania. Among the oldest aviation academies in ...
, the Italian Air Force Academy, which has since moved to a hilltop campus on the mainland.
NATO's
Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe
Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe (NAVSOUTH) was a Component Command in NATO's Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH).
Between 1951 and 1953, after the establishment of AFSOUTH, Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe, initially Admi ...
moved from
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
to Nisida Island in 1971.
Nisida is divided now between a naval headquarters belonging to the
Italian Navy and a juvenile detention facility.
A monastery at Nisida
The surprisingly extensive connections between the island and Britain may begin in the 7th century with Hadrian or
Adrian of Canterbury
Adrian, also spelled Hadrian (born before 637, died 710), was a North African scholar in Anglo-Saxon England and the abbot of Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's in Canterbury. He was a noted teacher and commentator of the Bible. Adrian was born betwe ...
, abbot of
Christchurch, Dorset
Christchurch () is a town and civil parish in Dorset on the south coast of England. The town had a population of 31,372 in 2021. For the borough the population was 48,368. It adjoins Bournemouth to the west, with the New Forest to the east. Part ...
.
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
records that he was a Greek-speaking
Berber from
North Africa, who was
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fe ...
of a monastery near Naples (''non longe a Neapoli''). The name of the monastery varies with different textual traditions between ''monasterium Niridanum'' and ''Hiridanum''. Neither is identifiable as a place near Naples, which has led many scholars to think that "Nisidanum", or "of Nisida" was meant. There are no other records of a monastery there, although there were many around the
Bay of Naples
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...
.
[Bischoff and Lapidge, 120-123] Hadrian was twice offered the position of
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Jus ...
by
Pope Vitalian
Pope Vitalian ( la, Vitalianus; died 27 January 672) was the bishop of Rome from 30 July 657 to his death. His pontificate was marked by the dispute between the papacy and the imperial government in Constantinople over Monothelitism, which Rome ...
, but instead suggested
Theodore of Tarsus, who then insisted that Hadrian accompany him. It is thought that a hypothetical "Neapolitan Gospelbook" which then ended up at
Wearmouth-Jarrow is the source of some Neapolitan elements found in
Northumbrian gospel manuscripts including the
Lindisfarne Gospels
The Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV) is an illuminated manuscript gospel book probably produced around the years 715–720 in the monastery at Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, which is now in the ...
, which records feasts which were celebrated only in Naples: the birth of
Saint Januarius
Januarius ( ; la, Ianuarius; Neapolitan and it, Gennaro), also known as , was Bishop of Benevento and is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. While no contemporary sources on his life are preserved, late ...
and the Dedication of the Basilica of Stephen.
See also
*
List of islands of Italy
Notes
References
*Bischoff, Bernhard, and Lapidge, Michael, ''Biblical commentaries from the Canterbury school of Theodore and Hadrian'', Volume 10 of Cambridge studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 1994, Cambridge University Press, ,
google books
External links
{{authority control
Geography of Naples
Islands of Campania
Volcanoes of Italy
NATO installations in Italy
Tuff cones
Phlegraean Fields