Le torri di Forio tra rappresentazione e valorizzazione / The towers in Forio between representatione and enhancement

Although speculation attacked the island of Ischia starting from the 1960s, the characteristic sinuous landscape due to its volcanic nature remains completely recognizable. And it was just its volcanic nature to make the island famous for therapeutic baths (known from the Ancient ages and famous since the end of the 16th century); because of its thermal baths Ischia was started to international tourism from the second half of the 18th century. In addition to the thermal waters, there is another peculiarity that makes the island unique: the presence of many watchtowers that still mark the island despite the disastrous effects of recent mass tourism. In Forio area which was the most exposed to pirates and corsairs raids, there are still eight towers; these towers, built between the middle of the 15th and the middle of 16th century, are of two different types: circular towers and square towers. Circular towers and square towers are alternated along the ancient ways of 16th century. This close connection remained the same during the 19th century, and Pasquale Mattej drew the towers and their background in an album of 81 drawings during a study tour to Ponza, Ventotene and Forio. In his manuscript Memorie di Ponza, Ischia e Ventotene (1847), stored in the Biblioteca allicelliana in Rome, there are 20 drawings of Ischia, 8 of Forio. Some of them were used for the articles of the Poliorama Pittoresco (1855-1857). Some towers were attacked by low-quality buildings, while others still have a good connection with their rural, urban and panoramic background. This system of the towers and their environment perfectly reflects the meaning of cultural landscape, that still today is able to express aesthetic, historic, cultural, and scenic peculiarities; these characteristics have been formed in a very long time and they should be enhanced.