s able to successfully defend the Tyrrhenian Sea from the Turks.
At the beginning of the year 1693, an earthquake destroyed all the towns in eastern Sicily causing 140,000 deaths. After the population invoked the protection of Saint Bartholomew during prayers in the cathedral, there was not a single victim on the Aeolian Islands. The economic conditions of the islands improve greatly during the 17th century with agricultural progress (malvasia grapes, Capers, excellent variety of fruit, vegetables and fishing). With the Bourbons comes the affliction of criminal and political prisoners. This unhappy imposition continues and worsens until the unification of Italy. In 1916, the penal colony is closed but the fascist regime tries to reopen it in 1926 - in vain. The island population reacts by pulling down the remains of the ex-penitentiary in the castle. However, not long after, the castle is converted to accommodate anti-fascist politicals in enforced exile. Liparians fraternized with these exiles until the Liberation. After the war, the same room that had housed the opponents of fascism became the Eolian Archaeological Museum.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the Aeolian Islands were visited by Duke Luigi Salvatore of Austria - a friend of the islands and also a man with a profound knowledge of the archipelago. Between the years 1893-96 he published a work of eight volumes on the Aeolian Islands.
In August 1888, the crater named Fossa on Vulcano erupted and caused many deaths in the sulphur mines. The eruptions continued for 19 months
