Villa in Campania Napoli Massa Lubrense

THE TOWN - Massa Lubrense

Massa Lubrense was originally named after the mythical sirens who lived on these coasts. According to legend Ulysses was also a visitor to these shores and is said to have founded the famous temple of Athena. The first inhabitants of this area were probably two tribes of Italic origin: the Ausonians and the Oscans. Evidence of the latter bas been found in rock inscriptions discovered a few years ago on the eastern side of Punta Campanella.

When the Greeks formed a colony here, the name of the temple (Athenaion) was used to describe the whole tip of this peninsula which conserved its marked Hellenistic character even during Roman times, when it was called Promontorium Minervae, a name appearing on the Tabula Peutingeriana (IV century) next to the first drawing of the temple.

It was only in the first century that Latin culture came to the fore with the arrival of eminent patricians who spent their holidays and free time here in luxurious villas of which we still have interesting remains. There were no inhabited centres of any importance and apart from the Roman villas there were just a few dwellings dotted here and there in the fields and inhabited by people who made a living from agriculture. During this period, veterans who bad been given land to cultivate by Augustus were also to be found in this area.

The first residential areas developed groups of houses which became hamlets (casali), and then villages, thus laying the foundations for the social and administrative organisation of the district today.

The name Massa first appears following the brief domination of the Longobards (VI century), but it did not completely affirm itself until later. Most historians believe that Massa derives from mansa, a Longobard word indicating a place dedicated to cultivation. The adjective publica (938) was added to the name Massa to mean state-owned land, public domain, in this case evidently belonging to the state of Sorrento. Around 1306 publica was replaced by lubrensis (delubrum = temple, in reference to the cathedral to be found on the beach of Fontanella). The municipality added both this adjective and an image of the Virgin of the Lobra to its coat of arms. The name Massa without adjectives usually refers to the cathedral house, nowadays indicated as the centre of the town.

Massa Lubrense formed part of the Dukedom of Sorrento and its fortunes alternated until the arrival of the Normans. Its emancipation began under the Svevians, when it declared itself a civitas.

During the Spanish viceroyalty, Massa Lubrense underwent a period of political unrest in an era of civil and moral decadence made worse by the frequent invasions of Turkish pirates who in 1558 after horrendous massacres and pillaging took away about one thousand five hundred people as slaves, some of whom were then ransomed.

The continual threat from the sea forced the people of Massa to build a series of watch towers along the coast, almost all of which are reasonably preserved and can still be seen today.

Eventually, during the domination of the Bourbons, even Massa began to feel the progress of the times, and new commercial and artisan activities began to emerge alongside the ancient peasant civilisation. Due to the poor communications by land, a substantial fleet of large ships sailed to the capital and to other Mediterranean ports exporting agricultural produce, livestock and artisan products and importing raw materials and consumer articles. Commerce with Naples was so intense that an entire district down at the quay side was named Porta di Massa.

Over the last few decades in spite of the crisis in this sector, agriculture has remained fairly prosperous, whilst thanks to the improvement and expansion of its services and facilities, domestic and international tourism has flourished.