Dome of Portoferraio (S. Natività della Beata Vergine Maria)

The construction of the Cathedral of Portoferraio, consecrated in 1554 and dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, began simultaneously with the Medici walls in 1548 at the behest of Cosimo I.

Initially consisting of a single central nave, it was expanded over the centuries. Under French rule, the Opera della Chiesa Parrocchiale (whose first worker was the Elban historian Giuseppe Ninci) was established, and on this occasion, the main altar in stucco was replaced with one made of marble from the Church of the Carmine, which had been desecrated for several years and transformed into a Theater by Napoleon.

At the altar of the 16th-century wooden Crucifix, which at the time was located to the right of the Main Altar, the Confraternity of the Reverend Misericordia was established in 1566, and on May 4, 1814, a Te Deum was celebrated in the presence of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had just been appointed ruler of the Island of Elba.