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Ischia, the concrete siege continues: an illegal construction site discovered on the cliffs in Forio.

Flegrean Chronicle
The Helicopter Unit's aerial inspection identified the construction site. On the ground, inspections revealed works carried out without or in violation of the required permits. Two buildings were affected.
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The illegal construction site seized in Forio
The illegal construction site seized in Forio
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Ischia: The Siege of Concrete Does Not Stop. Illegal Construction Site Discovered on the Cliffs of Forio. 2026 08 28
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Ischia – After the recent seizure of an illegal resort nestled among the rocks of Barano, the Carabinieri have identified another construction project in a protected area. In Panza, reinforced concrete structures, an unauthorized basement, and new construction work are underway despite pending proceedings.

Ischia continues to grapple with one of its deepest wounds: illegal construction. This phenomenon on the island is intertwined with the fragility of the land and the protection of one of the most delicate landscapes in the Mediterranean. This issue has returned to the forefront in recent weeks, following the seizure in Barano d'Ischia of a complex of illegal structures built among the rocks of Capo Grosso-Scarrupata and destined, according to Carabinieri investigations, to become a luxury resort.

Even then, the work involved a particularly fragile area, classified as R4, meaning at very high landslide risk. The structure had even been camouflaged with a vegetated net to make it less visible from the coast and from above. Four people were charged. In the following days, the Campania Region requested a report from the Municipality of Barano on the inspections carried out and the administrative measures adopted.

The illegal building front has now moved to Forio, in the Panza area, where another construction activity has come under the scrutiny of the Carabinieri.

The eye from above discovers the construction site

The intervention, triggered at the beginning of August, was a flyover of the island carried out by soldiers from the Ischia Company together with the Carabinieri Helicopter Unit of Pontecagnano.

From above, the military spotted an active construction site, featuring large reinforced concrete structures within an area subject to landscape restrictions.

A ground inspection was then organized. Carabinieri officers from the Forio station, along with local police officers and technicians from the municipal Technical Office, assessed the situation and, according to investigators' findings, found a series of works carried out without the necessary permits or in violation of the authorizations.

To prevent the work from continuing and further aggravating the transformation of the area, an emergency precautionary seizure of the entire property, attributed to a Swiss architect, was triggered.

Two properties in the crosshairs

The investigations involved two separate buildings.

The first is a property that had already been subject to seizure orders over the years. Part of the structure had been subject to an amnesty procedure that was concluded in 2023. According to what emerged during the inspection, however, the building was almost entirely demolished and subsequently rebuilt, at least in part, with new reinforced concrete structures, walls, and floors.

Inside, the military also identified a basement space of approximately 75 square meters, intended for storage of vehicles and, according to the investigations, never included in any regularization procedure.

The situation was further complicated by the building applications submitted in 2024 for seismic retrofitting. According to the investigation, the works were started without the required landscape approval, while metal reinforcements had already been prepared on the construction site for further work, despite the building permit application still being pending.

The second building and the amnesty that did not include it

The investigations then involved a second property, a basement of approximately 55 square meters already placed under criminal seizure in 2016.

Here, too, the Carabinieri found new work. Among the disputed interventions were a concrete perimeter lining, a reinforced screed, and the creation of a new opening for window frames.

The work was apparently justified by a technical declaration certifying the building's urban planning compliance, citing a previous amnesty. However, the investigation revealed that the building itself was not included in the amnesty provision.

This element led investigators to also hypothesize a possible ideological falsity in documents intended for public administration.

The concrete on the cliff, a wound that returns

The Panza case thus fits into a broader framework that continues to question the island's relationship between construction, landscape protection, and land safety.

The sequence of recent months paints a clear picture: on the one hand, increasingly sophisticated controls, with helicopters and drones capable of identifying structures hidden among vegetation; on the other, attempts to transform restricted areas of land into residential spaces or hospitality facilities.

The recent Barano case demonstrated just how far this rush to build concrete can go: a resort built in a wild coastal area, with rockwork, illegal water pipes, and even electrical wiring inside a natural cave. The structure was concealed with camouflage netting to blend in with the vegetation.

In Panza, however, it was a check from above that led investigators to the trail of the new construction site.

The hypotheses of crime

The Carabinieri have charged those responsible with illegal construction in a protected area, violation of landscape protection regulations, and false ideology in documents intended for public administration.

The charges must now be evaluated by the appropriate authorities and, as always, the suspects must be granted every legal protection.

Meanwhile, the precautionary seizure affected the construction site of the main building, including the basement deemed illegal, and the second property on which the most recent work had been carried out.

The message coming from Forio, just days after the seizure of the Barano resort, is the same: concrete continues to pose a burden on the island that's difficult to eradicate, but the controls are also changing pace. And this time, to discover what had been built on the cliff, all you had to do was look down from above.

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