Ercolano
Ercolano is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania of Southern Italy. It lies at the western foot of Mount Vesuvius, on the Bay of Naples, just southeast of the city of Naples. The medieval town of Resina was built on the volcanic material left by the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the ancient city of Herculaneum, from which the present name is derived. Ercolano is a resort and the starting point for excursions to the excavations of Herculaneum and for the ascent of Vesuvius by bus. The town also manufactures leather goods, buttons, glass, and wine.
History
Ancient Herculaneum
According to legend, Herculaneum was founded by Hercules, who was returning from one of his Twelve Labours. Historically, it was most likely founded by the Oscans, an Italic tribe of the 8th century BC, and later became part of both the Etruscan and Samnite dominions. Under the control of the Romans, the city was a renowned seaside resort where some of the richest Roman citizens spent their summer vacations. It was built according to the standard model of Hippodamus of Miletus with a grid of crossing Decumans and Cardos. The houses were elegant and large and there were public buildings that were abundant and large, compared to the small number of inhabitants.On 5 February AD 62, the resort city suffered heavy damage from violent earthquakes. Restoration projects were still ongoing at that time and were cut short in AD 79, when Vesuvius violently erupted and completely buried the small city under thick layers of hot volcanic debris. Unlike neighboring Pompeii, which was buried under pumice and fine ash, the citizens of Herculaneum died of severe thermal shock from successions of superheated pyroclastic surges and lava flows.
Founding of Resina
After the eruption of AD 79 the area was slowly re-populated and in AD 121 the old coast road from Naples to Nocera was probably in place. In the Basilica di Santa Maria a Pugliano are two early Christian marble sarcophagi from the 2nd and 4th centuries AD which give evidence of habitation on the site of the buried Herculaneum.There are no historical records covering the period between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the year 1000, but it is certain that the coast near Mount Vesuvius would have been exposed to frequent wars as a result of the peoples and armies invading the Empire.
The first records of the existence of a village named Resina or Risìna, , are from the 10th century.
The etymology of the name is controversial. Some academics believe that it comes from a corruption of Rectina, the name of the Roman noblewoman from Herculaneum who asked Pliny The Elder for help during the eruption in AD 79. Other explanations are that the name could come from the Latin word raetincula, meaning the nets used by the fishermen of Herculaneum, or from the resin of trees grown on the ancient lava, or from the name of the river that flowed alongside Herculaneum. Finally some suggest that the name is the anagram of sirena : a siren was the symbol of the village and the town of Resina until 1969.
Documents from the 11th century indicate the presence of a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary on a hill called Pugliano whose name probably derives from Praedium Pollianum, an ancient estate outside Herculaneum whose owner was called Pollio.
Renaissance
In 1418 Queen Joanna II of Naples granted the Università of Torre del Greco, Resina, Portici and Cremano to her favourite Sergianni Caracciolo and later to Antonio Carafa. Thereafter these villages remained in the possession of the Carafa family and were subject to events within the family and the wider history of the Kingdom of Naples.Resina's main industries were agriculture, fishing, and the cutting and carving of volcanic stone. In the 16th century the veneration of the Madonna di Pugliano, who was venerated in the church of Santa Maria a Pugliano, was so widespread that large numbers of pilgrims flooded in from the surrounding areas. In 1574 the church was first mentioned as Basilica pontificia; two years later it became the parish church of Resina, the parish also including the neighbouring town of Portici until 1627.
The violent 1631 eruption of Mount Vesuvius took place after a long dormant period and devastated the surrounding area, killing more than 4000 people and changing the local geography. The volcano's eruption was its second most destructive ever, exceeded only by the eruption that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79. Two lava flows approached Resina but these were kept separate as they flowed around the hill of Pugliano, sparing the houses of the village. One of the flows filled the valley on the western side of the hill and when it solidified the village expanded onto the newly created plain. The wide road via Pugliano was built running straight up to the basilica on the top of the hill.
After about three centuries of feudalism, Resina and its neighbours Portici, Torre del Greco and Cremano liberated themselves from their status as baronial subjects in 1699 by paying 106,000 ducats to the Crown as "baronial ransom". Resina paid one third of the total amount. The event is one of the most memorable in the history of Resina and the neighbouring towns.
Re-discovery of Herculaneum
In 1709 Emmanuel Maurice, Duke of Elbeuf was constructing a residence on the Italian coast at Portici when he heard about a man who had discovered ancient marble sculptures and columns while digging a well in the nearby town of Resina. The duke bought the man's farm and began digging shafts and tunnels. He excavated statues, columns and marble sculptures, placing some of them in his Portici residence and giving others as valuable gifts to his friends and relatives and to the monarchs of Europe.The news reached King Charles VII of Naples, who was aware of the importance of the finds. He bought the duke's farm and started methodical excavations with the aim of unearthing all the valuable antiquities buried there. As the discovery of ancient Herculaneum became known around Europe, impetus was given to the Western cultural movement known as Neoclassicism and to the custom among the British and European upper-class of taking of the Grand Tour.
Enthusiastic about the large amounts and the beauty of the archaeological finds, the king had the summer Palace of Portici constructed, on the border with Resina. Findings of Herculaneum were housed in a dedicated part of the palace, which was open for the king's guests.
The size of the collection increased after 1750, when exploration of the large suburban villa of the Pisoni family brought large amounts of wooden and marble statues to light: the two corridori or lottatori and the Sleeping Mercury are the most well-known ones. Of special importance was the discovery in 1752 of the burnt papyrus scrolls of the library of the villa, known today as the Villa dei Papiri. They were carefully unrolled using a special machine made by Fr. Antonio Piaggio, containing the work of the epicurean Greek philosopher Philodemus.
Growth of modern Resina
Following the king's example, nobles of the kingdom started building their summer villas and gardens next to the royal palace and the surrounding area. On the stretch of the main street called Strada Regia delle Calabrie, which is the royal street towards to the region of Calabria, from the centre of Resina to the beginning of nearby Torre del Greco, large and representative villas were constructed. This part of the street is known as the Golden Mile. Amongst the most outstanding buildings are the Villa Campolieto, designed by Luigi Vanvitelli, and the Villa Favorita, designed by Ferdinando Fuga. The Villa Favorita received its name from Queen Maria Carolina of Austria, because the place reminded her of her childhood's surrounding of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.In 1799 during the last days of the Parthenopaean Republic, final fights took place in the streets of Resina and Portici between the king's supporters and the republicans. To celebrate the return of King Ferdinand IV of Naples against the "atheist" and pro-French republic, the inhabitants of Resina constructed a chapel of thanksgiving with a crucifix on the spot that replaced the republican Tree of Freedom. On 27 June 1802, the king returned in Naples landing to the pier of Villa Favorita.
During the kingdom of Joachim Murat, Villa Favorita still was used for parties and celebrations held by the king and the winding and narrow leg of the Strada Regia delle Calabrie in Resina was straightened and widened throughout the town centre.
19th to 20th centuries
The area changed following the construction of the first Italian railway in 1839 and the establishment of industrial facilities such as glassworks and tanneries along the coast. Nevertheless, Resina remained an agricultural town, known for its fruit and healthy air, and it was famous as a tourist destination with visits to the underground Theatre of Herculaneum and ascents to the crater of Mount Vesuvius.In 1845 the Royal Vesuvius Observatory was opened, the oldest volcanology institute in the world.
In 1863 the local artist Marco de Gregorio was part of the School of Resina, an artistic movement that broke with tradition by painting in a non-academic realistic style.
In 1865 the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele II inaugurated the open-air excavations of Herculaneum.
In 1880 the funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius was opened, and the event inspired the well-known Neapolitan song Funiculì, Funiculà. The funicular was repeatedly wrecked by volcanic eruptions and abandoned after the eruption of 1944.
In 1904 the Circumvesuviana railway began running services from Naples to Castellammare di Stabia with a station in Resina-Pugliano, close to the Basilica of Santa Maria a Pugliano and the Mount Vesuvius funicular. In 1927 King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy inaugurated the new entrance of the archaeological site of Herculaneum on the Miglio d’Oro, and a new street was opened some years later to join the archaeological site to the Circumvesuviana railway and funicular stations.
The second oldest Italian motorway was opened in 1930 from Naples to Pompeii, with an exit at Resina.
From the second half of the 19th century until well into the 20th, Resina was a residential and holiday town for both the aristocracy and the Neapolitan middle class. They used the classic villas of the Miglio d’Oro as well as more modern ones such as Villa Battista, an elegant Art Nouveau building. Among the famous people who lived in or frequented the town are the poet and writer Gabriele D’Annunzio, the scientist Arnaldo Cantani, the former Khedive Isma'il Pasha of Egypt, the Italian prime minister Antonio Salandra, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Carlo Sforza, and King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden who was an amateur archaeologist. Large numbers of other celebrities also came to Resina to visit the underground theatre and the archaeological site of Herculaneum and Mount Vesuvius.
Famous citizens of Resina included Benedetto Cozzolino who founded a school for the deaf and dumb in 1788 ; Amadeo Bordiga, founder with Antonio Gramsci of the Communist Party of Italy ; the philosopher Adriano Tilgher and the painter Alfonso Marquez.
In the years after WWII the street market in Via Pugliano became famous nationwide for selling used clothes that attracted seekers of vintage clothing and bargain hunters.
On 12 February 1969, following a formal request from the Town Council, the President of Italian Republic decreed the change of the name of the town from Resina to Ercolano, which is the Italian version of ancient name Herculaneum.
In 1971 the Ente per le Ville Vesuviane was created and it is now a foundation, with the objective of restoring and preserving the main 18th-century villas. The first villas to be restored were Villa Campolieto, Villa Ruggiero and the seaside park of Villa Favorita and its facilities. They now host cultural events and are the headquarters of cultural institutions and a postgraduate School.
In the 1980s and 1990s the town was hit by an industrial crisis and a dramatic increase in unemployment and crime. Since end of the 20th century there have been strategies to boost social and economic growth focused on tourism and culture.
In 1995 the Mount Vesuvius National Park was created and the entire area of Ercolano north of motorway is included in the Park. In 1997 the Archaeological site of Herculaneum was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site along with Pompeii and Oplontis. Mount Vesuvius and the Miglio d'Oro were included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves under the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve Programme. In 2005 the MAV was opened along with the permanent open-air exhibition Creator Vesevo and its 10 stone sculptures of famous contemporary international artists lining the street towards the Mount Vesuvius crater.