# History of Casamicciola > The history of Casamicciola Terme is the story of its hot springs and its people. From the Pio Monte della Misericordia, which from 1604 treated the poor at the Gurgitello spring, to the 19th-century European spa resort and the late-19th-century rebirth towards the Marina, the town has always found a way to begin again. ## History of Casamicciola Discover Casamicciola Thermal waters, faith, illustrious guests and rebirths: four centuries of history in a small town overlooking the Gulf. Few places tell their story through water as Casamicciola does. The hot springs rising from the volcanic subsoil, starting with the Gurgitello spring, led to the founding here in 1604 of one of Europe’s first thermal hospices, run by the Pio Monte della Misericordia, and later, in the 19th century, to a holiday resort frequented by aristocrats, artists and writers from all over the continent. It is a community that has always known how to renew itself. After 1883 the town was reborn facing the sea: its centre moved towards the Marina, where the new Pio Monte, the new mother church and the buildings that still welcome visitors arriving from the harbour were built. In these pages you will find the churches and religious traditions, the milestones of the spa tradition, the people who loved Casamicciola and the transformations of its landscape. To begin: [the origins of thermal cures](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/origins-of-thermal-cures/), [the Pio Monte della Misericordia](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/pio-monte-thermal-care-for-the-poor/), [the rebirth after 1883](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/rebuilding-the-spa-tradition-after-1883/) and the [Basilica of Santa Maria Maddalena](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/basilica-sacred-heart-santa-maria-maddalena/), the town’s mother church. ## Casamicciola through the ages Milestones - Antiquity — The island’s hot waters — Thermal bathing has been practised on Ischia since the time of the Greek colonists. A legend links the town’s name to the matron Nisola, healed by its waters and depicted on the municipal coat of arms. - 1588 — Giulio Iasolino’s treatise — The Calabrian physician publishes De’ rimedi naturali in Naples, devoting great attention to the Gurgitello spring in Casamicciola. - 1604 — The Pio Monte della Misericordia — The Neapolitan charitable institution decides to found a thermal hospice for the sick poor in Casamicciola; the first season of treatments is held in July 1605. - 1856 — The new Gurgitello spa — The spa building commissioned by Ferdinand II, today’s Antiche Terme Belliazzi, opens in Piazza Bagni. Casamicciola is a spa resort known throughout Europe. - 1864 — Garibaldi at the spa — On 19 June Giuseppe Garibaldi arrives in Casamicciola to treat the wound he received at Aspromonte with the waters of the Occhio and Gurgitello springs. - 1867 — Ibsen’s summer — The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen settles at Villa Pisani, where he presses on with writing Peer Gynt. - 1883 — The rebirth — After 1883 Casamicciola renews itself and moves down towards the sea: the centre of town life shifts from the Piazza Maio hill to the Marina, where the town’s present-day face takes shape. - 1884 — New rules and new science — From 15 September a new building code comes into force for the island’s municipalities; at the Grande Sentinella the Geodynamic Observatory is founded, directed by Giulio Grablovitz. - 1895 — The new Pio Monte by the sea — The Pio Monte’s new thermal hospice opens on the seafront, leaving Piazza Bagni to look out over the gulf. - 1896 — The new mother church — On 31 May the church of Sacro Cuore e Santa Maria Maddalena (Sacred Heart and St Mary Magdalene), commissioned by the parish priest Giuseppe Morgera, is inaugurated; it has been a minor basilica since 1965. - 1952 — Rizzoli and the Terme Manzi — The publisher Angelo Rizzoli begins the purchase and revival of the Manzi Baths and Hotel in Piazza Bagni. - 1956 — Casamicciola Terme — In recognition of its abundant thermal waters, the municipality adds ‘Terme’ (Spa) to its name. - Today — A town looking ahead — On 17 September 2025 the Pio Monte complex became the property of the Municipality, with a restoration project that includes the Gurgitello spring. ## Places and stories of Casamicciola To discover Churches and traditions, spa history, notable figures, rebirth and science: explore the pages by theme. ### Origins and history of Casamicciola - [Origins and History of Casamicciola](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/origins-and-history-of-casamicciola/): Casamicciola Terme, on the northern side of the island of Ischia, has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, as the village on the Castiglione hill shows. The name first appears in 1265. Its springs… ### Churches, faith and traditions - [Church and Monastery of San Gabriele dell'Addolorata](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/church-monastery-san-gabriele-addolorata/): The church of San Gabriele dell'Addolorata, with its adjoining Passionist monastery, stands on Via Salvatore Girardi in the Perrone area. The monastery was founded in 1931 to house clergy who came to… - [Church of Santa Maria del Buon Consiglio](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/church-santa-maria-del-buon-consiglio/): The church of Santa Maria del Buon Consiglio, known as the Sailors' Church, overlooks Piazza Marina in the heart of Casamicciola. It was commissioned in 1819 by a group of local shipowners, built… - [Church of Sant'Antonio da Padova](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/church-sant-antonio-da-padova/): The church of Sant'Antonio da Padova, known as “al Mortito”, is the parish church of the Perrone district, near the cemetery. Founded as a private chapel in 1692, it was the only church in… - [Church of San Pasquale Baylon and Confraternity of Sant'Anna](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/church-san-pasquale-baylon-confraternity-sant-anna/): The church of San Pasquale Baylon, home of the Confraternity of Sant'Anna, is a small 18th-century church on Via Don Luigi Orione, in central Casamicciola. Founded as a family chapel, after 1883 it… - [Church of Santa Maria della Pietà](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/church-santa-maria-della-pieta/): The church of Santa Maria della Pietà is home to an old confraternity of fishermen and craftsmen, already active in the early 17th century. After 1883 the confraternity left its old oratory in the… - [Church of San Giuseppe](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/church-of-san-giuseppe/): The church of San Giuseppe is a 20th-century chapel, built between 1925 and 1929 and attached to the care home founded by Giuseppina Morgera, niece of the Venerable parish priest Giuseppe Morgera… - [Church of the Addolorata](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/church-of-the-addolorata/): The church of the Addolorata, in upper Casamicciola between the Maio, La Rita and the Sentinella, is the same church known as the Purgatorio or Santa Maria del Suffragio, on Via D'Aloisio. Since 1750… - [Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio (Purgatorio)](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/church-santa-maria-del-suffragio-purgatorio/): The church of Santa Maria del Suffragio, known as the Purgatorio, stands on Via D'Aloisio in upper Casamicciola, near Piazza Maio. Founded in 1693, rebuilt in 1890 and again in the 1970s, it is also… - [Sanctuary of Maria Santissima Immacolata](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/sanctuary-maria-santissima-immacolata/): The sanctuary of Maria Santissima Immacolata stands at the Sentinella, in upper Casamicciola, on Via Castanito. Founded in 1703 and dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin in the 19th century, after 1883… - [Basilica of the Sacro Cuore di Gesù and Santa Maria Maddalena Penitente](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/basilica-sacred-heart-santa-maria-maddalena/): The basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and St Mary Magdalene the Penitent is Casamicciola's mother church, on Via Roma near Piazzetta Funno. Successor to the old parish church in Piazza Maio, it… ### Volcanic and geological history - [The Volcanic Origins of Casamicciola](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/volcanic-origins-of-casamicciola/): Casamicciola was born of Ischia's volcanoes. Around 56,000 years ago the Green Tuff eruption formed a caldera, then the Monte Epomeo block rose by almost a thousand metres. Over the last 10,000 years… - [The Heat of the Earth: Fumaroles and Thermal Waters](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/fumaroles-and-origins-of-the-thermal-waters/): Casamicciola's thermal waters and fumaroles are the visible sign of the heat of Ischia's volcanic system, now dormant. The Monte Cito fumaroles approach 100 °C, while the springs of the town's four… ### Famous people - [Giuseppe Garibaldi in Casamicciola](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/giuseppe-garibaldi/): Giuseppe Garibaldi stayed in Casamicciola Terme for about a month in the summer of 1864, from 19 June, to treat the foot wound he had received at Aspromonte with the thermal waters. He lodged first… - [Alphonse de Lamartine in Casamicciola](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/alphonse-de-lamartine/): Alphonse de Lamartine, the French Romantic poet and politician, spent about a month in Casamicciola in 1820, shortly after his wedding, in a small house in the Sentinella area. He returned to Ischia… - [Henrik Ibsen in Casamicciola](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/henrik-ibsen/): The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen arrived on Ischia on 20 May 1867 and settled in Casamicciola, at Villa Pisani, where he pressed on with writing Peer Gynt, later completed in Sorrento. On the… - [Ernest Renan in Casamicciola](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/ernest-renan/): The French philosopher and historian Ernest Renan stayed in Casamicciola Terme three times, in 1875, 1877 and 1879, to take courses of thermal treatment. During his long spring stay in 1877 he worked… - [Giulio Grablovitz, the Sentinella Seismologist](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/giulio-grablovitz/): Giulio Grablovitz (Trieste 1846 – Ischia 1928) was the scientist called in to design and direct the Casamicciola Geodynamic Observatory, founded in 1884 at the Grande Sentinella. He invented… - [Angelo Rizzoli and the Manzi Baths](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/angelo-rizzoli/): Angelo Rizzoli (1889–1970), the Milanese publisher and film producer, was a driving force behind Ischia's tourism revival in the 1950s. In Casamicciola his name is linked to the purchase and… ### Rebirth and transformation - [Casamicciola after 1883: the rebirth](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/casamicciola-after-1883/): After 1883 Casamicciola was reborn facing the sea. The 1884 Building Code, the first anti-seismic legislation of united Italy, introduced timber-framed “baraccate” houses; the Geodynamic Observatory… ### History and science - [La Sentinella](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/la-sentinella/): La Sentinella is the hilly area of upper Casamicciola, divided into Grande and Piccola Sentinella and overlooking the gulf. After 1883 Giulio Grablovitz's Geodynamic Observatory was built here; here… - [Grande Sentinella Geophysical Observatory](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/grande-sentinella-geophysical-observatory/): The Geodynamic, later Geophysical, Observatory of the Grande Sentinella was established by royal decree and founded in 1884 in the upper part of Casamicciola. Designed and directed by Giulio… ### History of spa culture - [The Origins of Thermal Cures in Casamicciola](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/origins-of-thermal-cures/): Casamicciola owes its history to the hot water that rises from Ischia's volcanic subsoil. Used for healing since ancient times and documented from the Middle Ages, the town's springs, above all the… - [The Birth of Spa Tourism](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/birth-of-spa-tourism/): Between the 17th and 19th centuries Casamicciola moved from cures for the poor, organised by the Pio Monte della Misericordia, to true spa holidays enjoyed by nobles, artists and travellers. At the… - [History of the Gurgitello](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/history-of-the-gurgitello/): The Gurgitello is Casamicciola's most celebrated hot spring and rises in Piazza Bagni, which takes its name from it. Used since the Middle Ages and praised by Giulio Iasolino in 1588, for centuries… - [The Pio Monte and Thermal Care for the Poor](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/pio-monte-thermal-care-for-the-poor/): The Pio Monte della Misericordia, a Neapolitan charity founded in 1602, opened a hospice in Casamicciola from 1604 where the sick poor received thermal treatment, board and lodging free of charge… - [Casamicciola, a European Spa Resort](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/casamicciola-european-spa-resort/): In the 19th century Casamicciola became a spa resort known throughout Europe. Villas and grand hotels rose around the Piazza Bagni spas and on the Sentinella hills, frequented by aristocrats, the… - [Garibaldi and the Thermal Cure](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/garibaldi-and-the-thermal-cure/): On 19 June 1864 Giuseppe Garibaldi arrived in Casamicciola to treat the foot wound he had received at Aspromonte with thermal waters. He first stayed at Villa Manzi in Piazza Bagni, then at the Villa… - [Belle Époque Spas and Hotels](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/belle-epoque-spas-and-hotels/): Between the late 19th century and the early decades of the 20th, Casamicciola rebuilt its spas and hotels closer to the sea. The new Pio Monte hospice, opened in 1895, and hotels such as the… - [The Rebirth of the Spa Tradition after 1883](https://visitcasamicciola.com/en/history/rebuilding-the-spa-tradition-after-1883/): After 1883 Casamicciola was reborn facing the sea. A new building code, the first anti-seismic legislation of united Italy, guided the rise of new buildings: the Pio Monte opened its thermal hospice…