Places to see in ( Capri - Italy ) Via Camerelle
Places to see in ( Capri - Italy ) Via Camerelle
Via Camerelle is a street in Capri , in Campania , known for being the local shopping street. Formerly known as Via Anticaglia, along its route rise the ruins of forty cisterns that served as base and terracing to the path designed by the Romans that connected Castiglione to the imperial villa of Tragara. The name of the road, which starts from the Quisisana hotel pitch and goes straight to the beginning of Via Tragara , has an uncertain origin: in fact there are numerous theories that justify this toponym.
In ancient times the road was known as Via Anticaglia; The term Anticaglia probably refers to the ruins of the forty Roman cisterns that wound along the route of the road. This name fell into disuse in the eighteenth century , when it began to indicate the road as Via Camerelle. Although some hypotheses state that this name refers to a stony path at the foot of Mount Tuoro, the most accredited theory states, as already mentioned, that this name designates the numerous tanks built along the route of the street in Roman times.
The road, built in Roman times , rested on about forty powerful arches of which you can still see the bricks strictly ordered next to each other. These powerful arches, closed on one side by the mountain profile, formed enclosed spaces on three sides, the so-called camarelle or camerelle. Numerous conjectures have been advanced on the function of these structures. In addition to the hypotheses that the same had been a circus or an amphitheater , now considered untrue, has consolidated the opinion that these environments were formerly used as cisterns . This theory is corroborated both by the discovery of numerous pipes and lead pipes in the area of the structure of the rooms, in the classic barrel shape, typical of the cisterns.
Via Camerelle remained detached from the frenetic life of Capri until the early twentieth century , during which the road took life animated by the thousands of tourists who visited the island in the early twentieth century. During this period, which can be designated as the first golden phase of the street, the well-known Hotel Quisisana was inaugurated, whose kitchens overlook the beginning of the street, and numerous small craft shops were inaugurated; moreover the wide uncultivated space present along the end of the road, about 2000 m² wide, was converted into a luxuriant exotic garden.
The road instead experienced the second golden phase in the forties during which the Anglo-Americans, once disembarked on Capri, established their headquarters in some suites of the Quisisana hotel. The Allies, who had come to the island to forget the horrors of the war and spend the long-awaited award for a week, dedicated themselves to pure fun and opened numerous shops, which would have sold souvenirs or other objects. In fact, thanks to them in 1943 opened the Chantecler jewelry, run by the Neapolitan Pietro Capuano, which for about twenty years was the only luxury store on the street.
The modern road route of via Camerelle connects the built-up area of central Capri, starting from the Quisisana hotel, at the beginning of via Tragara and via Occhio Marino, which both lead to the south-eastern part of the island. The road, 273 meters long, follows a mostly straight path that can be divided into several sections. The first section includes the entire pitch on which the Quisisana hotel faces and is often known simply as the Quisisana pitch.
Originally at the Quisisana hotel there were unformed parts of ancient masonry brought to light in 1928 while public works were being carried out for the construction of sewage works. The structures (which were destroyed, as considered to be of no importance) are only mentioned in very few archival data, as no further information on their exact location was found. On the north side of the road, three meters of the treading side have remained short sections of a wall oriented east-west, with facing in brickwork. After the villa Pompeiana (more precisely, at the entrance of the civic number 71 A ) the nucleus of the arched wall structure, which supported the ancient road, and a short stretch of wall, slightly jutting out and oriented in a north-south direction, are preserved .
( Capri - Italy ) is well know as a tourist destination because of the variety of places you can enjoy while you are visiting Capri . Through a series of videos we will try to show you recommended places to visit in Capri - Italy
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