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| Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits Portoferraio, Elba |
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, 10 kilometres from the coastal town of Piombino, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park, and the third largest island in Italy, after Sicily and Sardinia. It is located in the Tyrrhenian Sea about 50 kilometres east of the French island of Corsica.
The island is part of the province of Livorno and is divided into seven municipalities. The municipalities are Portoferraio, which is also the island's principal town, Campo nell'Elba, Capoliveri, Marciana, Marciana Marina, Porto Azzurro, and Rio.
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Elba is the largest remaining stretch of land from the ancient tract that once connected the Italian peninsula to Corsica. The northern coast faces the Ligurian Sea, the eastern coast the Piombino Channel, the southern coast the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the Corsica Channel divides the western tip of the island from neighbouring Corsica.
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| Visiting Elba, Tuscany |
The second of these two events was associated with subduction of the Tethyan oceanic crust underneath Italy and the obduction of parts of the ancient seafloor onto the continents. Later extension within the stretched inner part of the Apennine mountains caused adiabatic melting and the intrusion of the Mount Capanne and the La Serra-Porto Azzuro granitoids.
These igneous bodies brought with them skarn fluids which dissolved and replaced some of the carbonate units, precipitating iron-rich minerals in their place. One of the iron-rich minerals, ilvaite, was first identified on the island and takes its name from the Latin word for Elba.
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More recently, high-angle faults formed within the tectonic pile, allowing for the migration of iron-rich fluids through the crust. The deposits left behind by these fluids formed the island's rich seams of iron ore.
The terrain is quite varied, and is thus divided into several areas based on geomorphology. The mountainous and most recent part of the island can be found to the west, the centre of which is dominated by Mount Capanne (1,018 metres), also called the roof of the Tuscan Archipelago. The mountain is home to many animal species including the mouflon and wild boar, two species that flourish despite the continuous influx of tourists.
The central part of the island is a mostly flat section with the width being reduced to just four kilometres. It is where the major centres can be found: Portoferraio, Campo nell'Elba.
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| Jordi Santanyí visits Elba, Tuscany |
The island was originally inhabited by Ligures Ilvates, who gave it the ancient name Ilva. It was well known from very ancient times for its iron resources and valued mines. The Greeks called it Aethalia, Αιθαλία, after the fumes of the metal producing furnaces.
Apollonius of Rhodes mentions it in his epic poem Argonautica, describing that the Argonauts rested here during their travels. He writes that signs of their visit were still visible in his day, including skin-coloured pebbles that they dried their hands on and large stones which they used at discus.
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The island was invaded by the Etruscans and later, after 480 BC, by the Romans. In the middle ages, it was invaded by the Ostrogoths and the Lombards, and then it became a possession of the Republic of Pisa. After the battle of Meloria, the Republic of Genova took possession of Elba, but it was regained by Pisa in 1292. The island was retained for two centuries by the Appiani family, Lords of Piombino, when they sold Pisa to the house of Visconti of Milan in 1399.
In 1544, the Barbary pirates from North Africa devastated Elba and the coasts of Tuscany. In 1546, part of the island was handed over to Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who fortified Portoferraio and renamed it Cosmopoli, while the rest of the island was returned to the Appiani in 1577.
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In 1596, Philip II of Spain captured Porto Azzurro and had two fortresses built there. A part of Elba came into the power of the Kingdom of Naples through the State of the Presidi, including Porto Longone.
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| Napoleon Bonaparte |
In 1736, the whole of Elba, with the principality of Piombino, passed under the jurisdiction of Kingdom of Naples. The British landed on the Island of Elba in 1796, after the occupation of Livorno by the French Republican troops, to protect the 4,000 French royalists who had found asylum in Portoferraio two years earlier. In 1801, the Peace of Luneville gave Elba to the Kingdom of Etruria, and it was transferred to France in 1802 by the Peace of Amiens.
The French Emperor Napoleon was exiled to Elba, after his forced abdication following the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814), and he arrived at Portoferraio on 30 May 1814. He was allowed to keep a personal guard of 600 men and was nominally sovereign of Elba, although the nearby sea was patrolled by the French and British navies.
During the months that he stayed on the island, Napoleon carried out a series of economic and social reforms to improve the quality of life. After staying on for 300 days, he escaped to France, on 26 February 1815.
At the Congress of Vienna, Elba was restored to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. In 1860, it became part of the new unified Kingdom of Italy.
The island was liberated from the Germans by the French 1er Corps d'Armée on 17 June 1944, in Opération Brassard. Faulty intelligence and strong defences made the battle more difficult than expected.
More recently, the island has become famed for its wine and is a noted tourist destination.
More information: Fondation Napoleon
If you wish to be a success in the world,
promise everything, deliver nothing.
Napoleon Bonaparte
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