During the Saracen occupation many inhabitants of Lipari moved to the Kaolin area, settling in some natural caves, called “Rutta i Saracina”.
Tradition states that the white chapel which can be admired on the hill overlooking the quarries, called “A Casicedda”, was built by the Liparian Christians on the run.
The same chapel housed the local farmers who gathered to rest and to share the collective prayer and the Sunday Mass.
At the end of the Muslim occupation, the area of Kaolin, called even “Vagnu Siccu – Dry Bath”, was a very important residential area because, since the second half of the 4th century B.C., it was known as location of healthcare provision where the afflicted by illness looked for recovery thanks to its waters with exceptional healing properties.

Along the ridge that stretches down to the sea, there are the indistinct remains of the Permeta Tower, a circular construction dating back to the 11th-12th century, from which the soldiers communicated with Alicudi, Filicudi and Salina through smoke signals during the day and signals fire in the night.
A semi-underground dome that was used as a storage room was built, where the soldiers could resist for days in case of siege.
Later the Tower was used as a workshop by workers who exploited an iron mine with the help of an aqueduct that collected water from the stream and conveyed it to the same tower.

The innumerable ruins of a glorious past visible in the archaeological, historical and volcanological evidence of Kaolin accompany the visitors in one of the most suggestive spots of Lipari.

“Likewise, in this place the Stoves should be named, which are dug to guide caves on the top of a small mountain: they are five, three of which communicate, and there are natural glimmers in them, so a damp steam flows all the warmer, as the digging is deeper. Above each there is an opening, from which the vapours come out: yet the stones of the vaults burn to sign, which cannot be touched, or rather of blacks which are naturally, at a certain time, appear white. The aforementioned stoves have been considered as very healthy since ancient times, and testifies to Diodoro, who not only visited each other because of illness, but still for some remission of soul and pleasure…”

Rosario Gregorio (1821)