Nisida

Nisida is a volcanic islet of the Flegrean Islands archipelago, in southern Italy. It lies at a very short distance from Cape Posillipo, just north of Naples; it is now connected to the mainland by a stone bridge. The islet is almost circular, with a flooded crater forming the bay of Porto Paone on the southwest coast. It has a diameter of about 0.5 kilometres (0.3 miles) and a highest altitude of 105 metres (344 feet).

The name of the island comes from the Greek for "islet" (small island), νησίς, for which the accusative was nesida.

In ancient times Lucius Licinius Lucullus built a villa on Nisida, and also Marcus Iunius Brutus had a holiday villa there. Cicero's letters record him visiting Brutus there, and it was there that Brutus's wife Porcia, the daughter of Cato Uticensis, committed suicide. He also may have agreed with Cassius on the assassination of Julius Caesar there. The claim is made that some of archaeological remains on Nisida are, indeed, those of the villa of Brutus. There may have been a monastery there in the 7th century (see below). In the 16th century a castle was built, which was subsequently a fief of the Macedonio family.

In the 19th century, Nisida was the site of an infamous Bourbon prison that gained notoriety when - after a visit to the prison in 1851 - William Ewart Gladstone wrote his Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen on the State Prosecutions of the Neapolitan Government, exposing the harsh conditions. In these letters, Gladstone coined the now famous description of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies as "the negation of God erected into a system of Government." Indignation throughout Europe was partially responsible for the at least partial improvement of the conditions in the prison.

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