 Sunday, October 12, 2008 |
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History of Elba IslandWhen you think of Elba, the first thing that springs to mind is the island’s fantastic sea and coastline, its luxuriant green Mediterranean vegetation, its magnificent beaches with thousands of coves and inlets which make it quite unique, and, of course, Napoleon, despite the fact that he stayed on the island for less than a year.
“History destined the Isle of Elba to be the stage for great events: and in fact, every Mediterranean civilization has left important traces of its presence. Nature, art and thousands of years of culture, encompassed in a microcosm of 224 sq km, go to create a unique atmosphere and conjure up remarkable scenarios, the fruit of encounters between different peoples. Legend has it that on his adventurous travels in search of the Golden Fleece Jason stopped off at Porto Argon, the present-day Capo Bianco, and, as Virgil recounted in the Aeneid, it was from this very port that three hundred Elban youths set sail to support “Pius Aeneas” in his savage fight against the Rutuli. For the Etruscans, Elba was an inexhaustible source of wealth: already as early as the VIII century BC they exploited the mines and exported iron all over the Mediterranean, from which they derived great wealth. Furnaces were built, where minerals were smelted twenty-four hours a day. This gave rise to an intense glow of firelight which, Aristotle recounts, induced Greek navigators to call the island by the name of Aethalia (spark). Five centuries of Etruscan dominion have handed down to us various necropolises, a few ruins of smelting ovens and numerous “highland villages” set in incomparable scenarios.
In the Middle Ages, it
was the turn of the Republic of Pisa to exploit
Elba’s iron In 1548 the Medici family took over the island; Cosimo I built the defensive walls around Portoferraio, a true gem of military urban planning. The harmony between sea, land and architecture was so perfect that the new town was called Cosmopoli “cradle of civilization and culture, example of equilibrium and rationality”. The Spanish then took over Porto Azzurro and made their contribution by building the imposing Forte San Giacomo, now a prison, in addition to several chapels and the charming little Monserrato Sanctuary, set against the bleak dolomitic mountainside. In the XVIII century, Elba was contested by
the Austrians, Germans, English and French with
frenetic diplomatic negotiations or fierce battles,
until its “full ownership and sovereignty” was
assigned to Napoleon Bonaparte who left behind
important traces of his rule: he built roads,
reorganized mining economy, increased the production
and export of wine. And the magic continues. A favourite subject of great macchiaioli painters, Elba offers hospitality to Italian and foreign artists who gather together in discreet cenacles, whose doors are open to endless “feasts of the memory. Gli
Spagnoli | Napoleone | I
Medici e Cosmopoli | |
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But
the history of the island goes far beyond the
ten months spent here by the French Emperor;
it began in the very distant past, as far back
as the middle and upper Palaeolithic ages,
to which the finds in Marciana Archaeological
Museum bear witness, together with other material
from S. Giuseppe aeneolithic burial ground
and the Marciana mountain subapennine villages,
as Dr. Umberto Gentini, Director of the Azienda
di Promozione Turistica of the Tuscan Archipelago
tells us.
Following
the decline of Etruscan dominance, the Romans
inherited the iron-working industry, but also
exploited the granite quarries and discovered
the healing powers of the mud-baths at the
San Giovanni spa, the island’s splendid
landscapes and its excellent wines.
mines
and granite quarries. Many of the columns that
decorate Pisa’s
Piazza dei Miracoli were sculpted by the skilled
stonemasons of San Piero. Much evidence testifies
to the Pisan period: the Romanesque churches
and the tower of San Giovanni in Campo, built
on an enormous mass of granite, but, above
all, the imposing Fortress at Marciana and
that of Volterraio, sentry of the mountains
and sea. 
