Description of the attraction
Lipari is the largest island of the Aeolian Islands volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is located 44 km north of Sicily. The island has a permanent population of about 11 thousand people, and at the height of the tourist season, its population increases to 20 thousand people.
Despite the fact that Lipari is a volcanic island, the last eruption took place here more than 230 thousand years ago. The capital of the island is Lipari, located on the east coast. In addition to it, there are four large villages - Pianaconte, Quatropani, Aquacalda and Canneto. You can get to Lipari by ferry that runs from Naples through the Sicilian city of Milazzo.
In ancient times, Lipari, along with Sardinia, was one of the few centers of obsidian trade in the Mediterranean - this hard volcanic rock was highly valued for its strength and cutting properties. Probably, the first people appeared on the island about seven thousand years ago - according to local legend, the name Lipari comes from the name of a brave warrior who brought people here from Campania. Greek colonists appeared on the island in 580 BC. - they settled on the territory of the modern settlement of Castello. Later, during the Punic Wars, Lipari became a naval base for the Carthaginians, and in 252-251 BC. the island was conquered by the Romans.
In the 3rd century Lipari received the status of a diocese - the relics of St. Bartholomew were kept in the main cathedral of the island from the 6th to the 9th century. And when Sicily was captured by the Arabs in the 9th century, the relics were transported to Benevento. Over the next centuries, power on the island passed from hand to hand - the Normans, the Hohenstaufens, the Anjou and Aragonese dynasties ruled here. In the 16th century, a fortress was built on Lipari, which has survived to this day. Already in the last century, in the 1930s-40s, the island was used as a place of exile for political prisoners, among whom were Emilio Lussu, Curzio Malaparte, Carlo Rosselli, Giuseppe Getti and Edda Mussolini.
Today the main attraction of Lipari is the Regional Archaeological Museum, which contains the oldest artifacts from antiquity, traces of volcanic activity and paleontological collections from all over the western Mediterranean.
