The first colonisers were the Greeks, and they came for the water: at the Nitrodi spring they raised a nymphaeum placed under the protection of the nymphs and of Apollo, god of beauty and health. From that site come the oldest finds of the territory — bas-reliefs now kept at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, marble inscriptions, coins of the Roman empire and shards of everyday tools — and the water is still there, at Buonopane, sought for its properties. The names tell the rest: the ancient hamlet of Moropano takes its name from the Greek Mur-Pan, which means «all hollow», or «all quarries», and indeed the village sits right among the quarries of Pallarito, of Candiano, of Terzano and of Nitrodi. The name Barano, instead, appears for the first time in two notarial deeds of 1300, one of them dated 28 August, and then on a stone of 1374 recalling some works of bishop Bartolomeo Bussolaro; the etymology is uncertain — some derive it from contra moerorem, some give it the meaning of «delightful place», some tie it to balneum, some to the «farm of Varius». The «d'Ischia» was added by the comune in 1862.
What the island built in order to survive can still be seen: hundreds of cellars dug into the tuff to keep the wine, and the snow pits, where the ice was kept for the summer. The entrance to the comune is marked by the old aqueduct called dei Pilastri, of 1470; there are the windmills of Montebarano and, at Testaccio, the Saracens' tower. The Saracens are inside the feast too: on the Saturday before the solemnity of Saint George the image of the saint is carried to the Maronti for the blessing of the beach and the sea, a custom going back to the time when he was invoked against invasions. One of the legends tells that during an attack the villagers who turned to the saint saw the rows of vines grown at the Maronti turn into soldiers: the assailants, believing themselves outnumbered, went home. Between 1938 and 1945, finally, Barano did not exist: it was aggregated to Ischia together with all the other comuni of the island, which became a single administrative body.
