2-979-020 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches from Naples - Castle of Ischia, 1857. 'On the north and west the island slopes gradually down to the sea, and terminates in a beach; while on the south and east it plunges into the sea in abrupt and lofty precipices...The advanced position of Ischia, commanding the western entrance to the Bay of Naples, has made it an important point d'appui for a blockading force; hence it has been the scene of many a fierce and sanguinary struggle during the dynastic wars and revolutions of the kingdom. The baths...have enjoyed high reputation from the earliest period of the Greek colonisation of the island. No spot of the same extent in the known world contains such a number of hot mineral waters; and so rich is the island in springs, that many valuable waters, which would make the fortune of any town in continental Europe, are here allowed to run waste, or are used for domestic purposes'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.