- air wiew of the crater
The first historical informations about Astroni go back to XIII century, when a doctor from Salerno,Pietro da Eboli, arrives in Campi Flegrei to draw up a treatise about thermal water entitled
"De Balneis Terrae Laboris" : he particularly describes the thermal structures of Roman Age present in Astrioni.
Since XV century Alphonso of Aragon institutes a game preserve in Astroni's crater, this posting will last until the end of Monarchy in Italy. The game preserve became more important in the eighteenth century ,when Charles III of Borbon ordered to extend the entry tower ,to build a boundary wall along the edge of the crater, to buid two Watch Tower (Nocera and Lupara towers)with a hunting club called "la Vaccheria". These structures are only ruins now and there is a project of the region to recover it.
Between the first years of the twentieth-century and the beginning of 70's the Nature Reserve has been administrated by Opera Nazionale Combattenti and then, with the insititution of regions, acquired by Campania Region.
From the postwar period the Astroni are used as a public park, where it is possible to do a lot of activities, including the access of hundred cars. As consequence it starts a progressive decay of the wood and to protect this area from 1966 WWF Italia starts a campaign for its safeguard.