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Coralli, che passione!
Costanzo, Alfonso, Costanzo. È di generazione
in generazione che gli Alberino a
Capri si occupano di coralli. Con la stessa,
profonda passione. Una passione che nel
1946 porta Alfonso ad aprire La Fiorente,
una piccola bottega di coralli e cammei.
Negli anni Ottanta ai gioielli in “oro rosso”
si affiancano zaffiri, smeraldi, rubini e un
trionfo di perle scelti personalmente dal
figlio Costanzo, e l’antica bottega di coralli
si trasforma sempre più in gioielleria. Ma
la passione per il corallo è sempre lì e nasce
così il Don Alfonso, negozio specializzato
dove fanno bella mostra coralli e cammei di
tutte le fogge e per tutte le tasche.
A Passion for Coral
Costanzo, Alfonso, Costanzo: on Capri
the Alberino family has crafted coral
for generations. With the same intense
passion. A passion that led Alfonso to
open La Fiorente, a small shop selling
coral and cameos, back in 1946. In the
1980s jewelry made with the “red gold”
was joined by sapphires, emeralds, rubies,
and a centrepiece of pearls personally
selected by Alfonso’s son Costanzo,
and the old coral shop was on its way to
becoming a jeweller’s. But the passion
for coral alone had never faded, and
led to the opening of a separate store
specializing in coral and cameos of all
kinds, to suit all pockets: Don Alfonso.
messa solenne è quasi finita quando una
pittoresca ed insolita processione si riversa
fuori dalla chiesa nella luce del giorno.
Alla testa vi sono le Figlie di Maria, delle
bambine e della sedicenni, tutte vestite
di bianco con ghirlande di fiori sui veli e
cinture rosse ed azzurre. Seguono i canonici
in rigide cappe e dietro i pescatori,
giovani marinai unitamente ad altri più
grandi, rossi e brizzolati che portano le
candele come le ragazze davanti a loro.
Segue, poi, la Confraternita del Villaggio,
anche loro pescatori, ma vestiti con
strani indumenti grigi, con cappucci
from their home island, however, they risked
the wrath of sudden storms on the open
seas. One night, when everything seemed
to be set fair for a good night’s fishing, a
huge and violent summer storm arrived out
of nowhere, surprising and capsizing all of
the fishing boats that were bobbing over the
famous shallows. Not one of the fishermen
on the many dozens of boats survived. Not
for the first time did the sea sow grief among
fisher families; this time, the exceptionally
and frighteningly high waves caused a
massacre. The widows of those poor
fisherfolk never again removed their widows’
weeds. To this day, the site of that horrific
disaster is known as the “Widowmakers’
Shallows” (Secca delle Vedove). Painter
John Benner drew inspiration from this
sorrowful episode in his beautiful oil painting
of women, crying in desperation on a cliff.
The Torre coral
In the 16th century, the coral banks around
the island began to go into decline. Faced
with this development, the fishermen of Capri
went to work for the boatowners who worked
out of Torre del Greco, and set sail for Sicily
and Tunisia. From April to October, their life
was filled with backbreaking and thankless
toil. They used to spend the days in the hold
of a boat with only biscuits to eat and often
brackish water to drink. Rarely did they have
a chance to go ashore; they would go without
sleep for days, all for a pittance for their toil
and suffering.
However, there was no lack of takers for this
life. Around two hundred young men set sail
every year: it was the only way to save the
money they needed to get married and start
a new life. They weren’t afraid of the dangers
of being taken prisoner by buccaneers or
pirates who plied the Mediterranean in those
days. Sailors used to open an account at a
Congregation of Charity/Bank at Capri and
Anacapri. These credit unions served to assist
poor young girls who couldn’t get married for a
lack of a dowry, as well as allowing the sailors
to build up a sum of money… “To be used to
free any contribuent who, God forbid, should
be enslaved by the Turks... Should this sad
deed occur, they may use all of the money
accumulated from the capital... And should it
prove to be impossible to pay for the many,
fifty ducats shall be available for each one,
informing the first who was enslaved; if all of
the sailors upon a ship were enslaved at the
same time, they should draw lots to decide
who shall be first, second, third, fourth, and
so on...”.
The banks were located in both towns, at
the small churches dedicated to Santa Maria
of Constantinople. Tradition has it that the
picture of this Italy Virgin, popularly known
as the Schiavona, was found in the hold
of a pirate ship attacked and destroyed by
a Torre del Greco coral-fisher’s boat off
the coast of Sardinia. This particular Italy
Virgin had been venerated by the Turks in
Constantinople since the times of Emperor
Constantine, before becoming the sacred
symbol and protector of the Torre del Greco
fishermen. Capri’s fishermen were also
particularly devoted to the Virgin. Before
embarking on any sea journey, they paid their
respects to Santa Maria del Soccorso at the
Monte Tiberio chapel (formerly dedicated to
Saint Leonard, patron saint of slaves), or to
Santa Maria a Cetrella on Monte Solaro. To
this day, the people of the Marina Grande
seaside village celebrate their most important
feast day of the year on the second Sunday
in September. The day is dedicated to the
“Madonna della Libera”, so named because
of the prayers said to her at the chapel in
the Castle of Capri in order to free Capri
fishermen held by the Turks.
Fishermen celebrate
In the late 19th century, another feast day
was celebrated in the centre of Capri, though
the tradition has since died out. English writer
John Richard Green wrote in 1876: “...The
only real break in the winter’s dullness is the
Feast of the Coral-fishers... generally one
of the last Sundays in January. Long before
daybreak the banging of big crackers rouses
the island from its slumbers; and high mass
is hardly over, when a procession of strange
picturesqueness streams out of church into
the sunshine. At its head come the “Daughters
of Mary”, some mere little tots, some girls of
sixteen, but all clad in white, with garlands
of flowers over their veils and girdles of red
or blue. Behind come the fishermen, young
sailorboys, followed by rough, grizzled elders,
bearing candles like the girls before them, and
then the village brotherhood, fishers too, but
clad in strange garments of grey, with black
hoods covering their faces, and leaving
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