In ancient times thermal baths were an almost sacred place with a very important social function: people went there to relax, to take care of their health, to take care of business. Otium and negotium.
The cleft of the crater of Monte Nuovo: on the background there is Monte Gauro | Ph. Machi di Pace - Trentaremi
Between the lakes of Lucrino and Averno, in the Campi Flegrei, in addition to the ancient one of Cuma, the most popular thermal bath was in Tripergole, not far from Pozzuoli. In Tripergole many people came to take care of themselves, “not only from neighboring villages, but also from distant ones”, as Giovanni Diacono wrote in the tenth century.
In 1298 Carlo d'Angió gave order to build an hospital in this village, to increase its reputation of thermal bath, as Attilio Wanderlingh tells in his book “Campi Flegrei”.
In the oasis there are several vineyards | Ph. Machi di Pace - Trentaremi
Until something upset the earth… It was the 1538, in the night between 29 and 30 September the earth began to tremble, to overheat until it boiled. It split and opened in a powerful jet of ash, stones, lapilli. Eight days of eruptions and destruction that almost deleted Tripergole, its thermal baths and its tradition of well-being.
The lake of Lucrino, connected to the sea and to the lake of Averno, retreated itself to become a very small mirror of water on which a new mountain, barely formed from the earth and ashes, began to be reflected.
Lake of Averno | Ph. Machi di Pace - Trentaremi
That mountain was Monte Nuovo. 130 meters high with a crater 80 meters deep, 400 meters wide and with a temperature inside of almost 27 degrees, Monte Nuovo is one of the youngest volcanoes in Europe. Seen from above, from the Virgilian Park, it looks more like a hill than a mountain.
Walking along the paths, we find the well-being that once these places offered thanks to thermal baths. Pine forests along the slopes alternate with the spontaneous Mediterranean vegetation, the holm oaks, the chestnut trees and among the dense vegetation the blue of the sky, of the sea, of the lake peeks out.
The Phlegrean Caost: Baia Castle and Capo Miseno | Ph. Machi di Pace - Trentaremi
Monte Nuovo is all projected on mirrors of water on which, as on a stage, the beauties of this land parade. You meet Capo Miseno, Posillipo, Nisida. Punta Epitaffio, the island of Ischia, if you walk toward north. And finally the lake of Averno, with its white-faced coots that walk on water.