Water, for the life of the island, has been a valuable asset. Every drop had to be preserved and, as it is evident in the roman villas of Capri, the cistern was the first and most important element in the construction of a house. The search for the springs has been vital, crucial to the survival of the community on the island. Just below the famous Piazzetta, there is Acquaviva, where, near the ancient Porta di Capri, from the rock springs a spring that for centuries has been the main source where the families of the village drew water. Continuing down, you reach via Marucella, which derives its name from the Latin Maris Cellae. The ancient Romans, built in this place many cisterns that, put together, it seemed to be at sea. The same street Veruotto takes its name from the Arabic Biruotto. place of wells. Even now, in the adjacent via Corigliano, there are three large Roman cisterns, fed by water that comes directly from Mount Solaro. The main one, which is more than 60 metres long, has been used for 40 years to cool the engines of the SIPPIC power plant. Many archaeologists think that these Roman cisterns were built using the large caves called Tiberius, where they extracted the wall clay, valuable to build precious vases of the Augustan age. Continuing on via Marucella, you will reach the locality of Torra. In this very place, marble slabs with Greek inscriptions were found which suggest that the first Greek agorà was located here. In the Tiberian era, from Torra, from huge tanks, through large pipelines, water was delivered to the ships that stopped in the Roman port, located at the end of the current beach. In the eighth century A.D., this locality was called Nymphaea, city of waters, from Ninpheum. There was settled a first community of Capri that, because of the frequent incursions Saracens, moved around the year thousand in the village of Castromaggiore, the present Capri. Also the old road, which led to the Palace of Augustus at sea, was called in the Middle Ages Bevaro, because the Certosini built a large shelter where the herds could drink with the water of the tanks.
curated by Renato Esposito
