Via Vittorio Emanuele III

Via Vittorio Emanuele III'' (English: Victor Emmanuel III Street), commonly calledVia Vittorio Emanuele'', is one of the main streets of Capri.

About two hundred meters long, the street begins at piazza Umberto I and continues until it reaches the small square of Quisisana, where via Camerelle and via Federico Serena begin. The street, which has had more than four different names, owes its fame to the various hotels and venues that were established there; in particular, until the 20th century, it was home to Capri’s historic café, the Zum Kater Hiddigeigei, so named in honor of the cat Hiddigeigei featured in a para-philosophical work by the German poet Joseph Victor von Scheffel.

History

Preamble

In a document dating back to 1551, the street is reported as "La Strettola", and the small chapel located near the arch connecting the Church of Santo Stefano (the seat of the ancient local bishopric) with the City Hall was called "San Giovanni Battista alla Strettola".

The first section of the street, the one connecting piazza Umberto I with the end of via Le Botteghe, was widened in 1688 during the construction of the Church of Santo Stefano; the remaining portion remained unchanged up to the height of the former Hotel Pagano.

The German historian Ferdinand Gregorovius, who stayed there, nevertheless described the street as "a narrow little lane which was never traveled by any vehicle" and so narrow as to "hardly allow two people to pass."

The Zum Kater Hiddigeigei

A venue located there, the Zum Kater Hiddigeigei (), contributed to making the street famous; the latter was the meeting point for all foreigners, especially Germans, who frequented the island.

The beer hall, defined by Edwin Cerio as the "stronghold of Mediterranean Germanism," was founded in the 1880s by the Pagano family.

The café was named in honor of the cat Hiddigeigei, a character present in the paraphilosophical poem by Joseph Victor von Scheffel Der Trompeter von Säckingen (The Trumpeter of Säckingen).

The Zum Kater Hiddigeigei was described by Hans Barth as follows:

Late nineteenth and twentieth centuries

In tribute to the German community that frequented the island every year, the street was named in 1894 after the Hohenzollern dynasty, thus becoming "via Hohenzollern."

However, even before it was named after the German reigning house, the street was called Tratto Quisisana because it led to the hotel of the same name; residents indeed also call it 'a scesa or 'a sagliuta of Quisisana.

In 1918, shortly after the end of the First World War, the street was dedicated to the Capresi who fell in the war (becoming via Gloriosi Figli di Capri) before assuming its current name in the same year.

See also

Squares

• Piazza Umberto I

Streets

• Via Camerelle
• Via Krupp
• Scala Fenicia

Bibliography