The English Fort in Portoferraio

This small fort is located on the San Rocco hill outside the historic center of Portoferraio, from where you can enjoy a beautiful view of the landscape.

Forte Inglese has had a troubled history, reflected in the variety of names it has been given over about a century.

Wanted in the 1700s by Cosimo III Grand Duke of Tuscany to protect Portoferraio from land attacks, it was originally called Forte di San Giovanni Battista.

In 1728, the work was ordered to be dismantled by Gian Gastone, the last of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany from the de' Medici family, fearing that in the event of a siege, the fort would be more of a danger than a reinforcement, becoming a strategic location for the enemies in their attack on the city.

And what Gian Gastone feared happened in 1796, when in response to the French occupation of Livorno, the English landed at Portoferraio on the Acquaviva beach and settled in what was left of the fort, which was rebuilt and renamed "Forte Inglese".

Although the sovereignty of the Grand Duke remained formally recognized, the four hundred men commanded by Admiral Nelson, who is said to have made the fort his headquarters, left Elba only nine months later following long diplomatic negotiations.

In 1802, after the French siege of Portoferraio, Napoleon, then First Consul, wanted to fortify the city externally by constructing several defense points: he decided to demolish the fortress, had it restored and re-armed, making it a strategic point in the external defense system of Portoferraio alongside the Forte Montebello, the Ridotta di San Rocco, and the fortino di S. Cloud (next to the former Portoferraio blast furnace).

When Napoleon arrived as the ruler of Elba in 1814, he decided to give the Forte Inglese a new lease on life; he had it enlarged and placed a large number of cannons, officers, and soldiers to guard it. Napoleon believed that the Forte Inglese, which he thought should be called Forte St. Hilaire, was very important for the defense of the city and the harbor, and he thought it should become the headquarters of his great imperial fleet when he returned as Emperor of all Europe. However, as we know, in 1815 Napoleon left Elba never to return.

Between 1816 and 1817, Elba, like the rest of Italy, was severely affected by a typhoid epidemic. The Grand Duchy government needed to find a place large enough, but also far from the city, to intern the infected, and the Forte Inglese was chosen. When the cholera epidemic was eradicated in 1817, the rooms of the fort were thoroughly disinfected and whitewashed, but the fort was abandoned and not manned militarily until World War II.

In 1861, following the unification of Italy, the phenomenon of brigandage spread throughout the peninsula, and at this time, the Forte Inglese became the site for forced detention. From this period, there remains a graffiti on the walls of the fort, likely written by a prisoner who participated in the literacy experiment carried out in the prison in 1865.

Curiosity: Before being definitively transferred to the Torre della Linguella, Giovanni Passannante was briefly imprisoned there, and, along with other prisoners, was forced to work in the Portoferraio salt pans.

During World War II, an antiaircraft battery was installed inside the fort: a turret armed with a 20 mm Breda machine gun. Later, it became a residence for many Portoferraio families seeking refuge due to air raids, and remained a temporary accommodation for poor or homeless families until the early 1980s.

Later, the fort housed several associations, local artists, and a local radio station.

The building is not very large, nor tall, and its walls are surrounded by a moat. It is accessible by a concrete bridge (which was built to replace the old drawbridge). It is said that the fortress still preserves underground passages that lead towards the sea and the outskirts of Portoferraio.

The restoration and recovery project for Forte Inglese was completed in October 2014, so it has been open to visitors again since 2015.

Throughout the year, the fort hosts exhibitions, temporary exhibits, conferences, and workshops organized and managed by the Park.