Together with the sea, Vesuvius Mountain is a part of the history of Naples, deeply felt by Neapolitan people.
Its presence has not just shaped the territory in a truly unique way, but it has also shaped the mentality and the way of thinking of the locals who always thought about the volcano as an old companion looking from above.
The proprierties of the volcano make the soil particularly fertile, maybe for this reason classical mythology transformed these natural elements into proper divine entities, and like all the pagan divinities they could show mercy and goodness giving the inhabitants food and prosperity, but they could also get angry and destructive.
In occasion of the Pompeii eruption they must have appeared pretty angry, but even after the dramatic event of 79, the lands became fertile again.
History of Vesuvius Mountain
Already in old times, years before the eruptions some scholars discovered that Vesuvius was actually a volcano. 61 years before the event, Vesuvius Mountain was described as a volcano in quiescent phase.
Its dangerousness thought was still not perceived by Pompeii’s people, not even by people living in Stabia or Herculaneum.
The eruption destroyed all the cities on the slopes of the mountain. Over time the volcano had several other eruptions but not that violent as the 79’s.
The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius is dated in 1944 and affected Massa and San Sebastiano. The cataclysm was filmed by the Anglo-American army that was occupying Naples at those time. After this occasion Vesuvio entered a quiescent phase again, and actually for this same reason there is the belief among some volcanologists, that next time the eruption could be explosive.
Interesting fact is that still now there is a vast population living on the slopes of the volcano, a thing that shows how deeply the Vesuvius is part of the Neapolitan people’s life.
Do not miss the chance to get to see Mount Vesuvius with your own eyes. Check out here: Vesuvius Mountain