Ottaviano (Campania)

Ottaviano is a town in the Metropolitan City of Naples, in the Italian region Campania, located in the Vesuvian Area. It was in Roman times a hamlet of houses within a vast estate (praedium Octaviorum) belonging to the gens Octavia, Augustus's family. The territory of the country includes most of the crater of Vesuvius. The Medici Castle in Ottaviano houses the headquarters of the National Park of Vesuvius. The city has long suffered from eruptions of Vesuvius, and in particular was almost completely buried by volcanic ash from Vesuvius's eruption of 1631, 1779 and 1906. According to Sir William Hamilton, during the first and second eruptions Ottaviano "was buried like Pompeii", and also in the third, as testified by Matilde Serao, who called the city "the new Pompeii". In the third eruption also the roof of the Mother Church of San Michele Arcangelo collapsed under the weight of the ash, but without killing anyone.