cover Bagnoli con indice

Index:

"Lucky depositary of four efficacious hydrothermal springs, of a very healthy climate and of a long shore with mineral-marine baths, it attracts during the four summer months thousands of Neapolitan families and many invalids from almost all the provinces of the Reign". So Wladimiro Frenkel described Bagnoli at the beginning of last century.

The sandy shore of Bagnoli, today part of an important project of tourist-ambient revaluation. In the background the characteristic outline of the hill of Posillipo.

As a matter of fact there are many witnesses till that period of the important role played by this enchanting Phlegraean locality which was enormously visited, until it was planted the ILVA, then ITALSIDER, which turned Bagnoli into a bleak agglomerate of rust-coloured houses, due to the waste steams, and suffocated any tourist or thermal activities.

The characteristic tuffaceous protuberance of the hill of Posillipo, called " dente di cane " (dog tooth) by the local fishermen. From afar, it looks like the horn of a rhinoceros (see the picture above).

Bagnoli - dente di cane

Anciently Bagnoli, which occupies the coastal line between the hills of Posillipo and Pozzuoli, besides the thermal functions probably accomplished to the ones connected to the port-emporium of Pozzuoli.

Its denomination derives from Balneolis (small baths) and so the characteristic of this place is to be considered just this latter till the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century, that is when inopportune and wrong choices altered its aspect rendering it, from charming tourist place, an oppressed and suffocating quarter-ghetto.

Bagnoli: i pontili dell'ex stabilimento siderurgico

On its four thermal resorts present at the beginning of the century and today almost completely disappeared or in disuse, there was in the square of Bagnoli the spring of the Tricarico, ancient spring Juncaria … , discovered in 1882, its temperature was of 53° and it was indicated for the cure of muscular, bony and rheumatic pains.

Always in the square, there was the bath Manganella, ancient balneum balneoli, whose water … had a temperature of 42°, indicated for neuralgias, gynaecologic and skin diseases. Like the bath Masullo, discovered in 1827, … with a temperature of 55°, indicated for rheumatic pains and arthritis.

Finally the bath Cotroneo, discovered in 1831, whose water was … indicated for anaemia and affections of the digestive apparatus.

Gianni PICONE " Da Posillipo a Cuma "