Elba Island

Endless horizon, golden beaches, caressed by clean sea waters, picturesque rocks, drowning in dense green ... It's Elba. The island, located in the Tuscan archipelago, in the north by the Ligurian Sea, in the south by the Tyrrhenian Sea. On the east coast is the Piombino Canal, and the Corsican Canal separates it to the west of Corsica.

Perhaps Napoleon, once exiled here, could consider himself lucky. Today everyone would agree to such an exile. More than a million tourists come every year to plunge into the warm sea waters, wander among colorful landscapes, to be fascinated by the ancient history of Elba Island. Reviews of people who have rested in this attractive corner, the most enthusiastic. The climate here is almost universally Mediterranean, with the exception of the mountain region of Capanna, where, as a rule, cool winters.

Many Mediterranean civilizations have left their cultural traces. For the Etruscans, he was an inexhaustible source of wealth. Already in the eighth century BC , iron ore was mined here , processed in furnaces that worked day and night, and iron was exported around the entire Mediterranean basin. The Romans inherited the steel industry, they started mining granite, discovered a variety of landscapes and therapeutic mud, built the terms of San Giovanni.

History ordered that the island of Elba was often the scene of important events. It was one of the centers of winemaking in the Roman Empire. Pliny the Elder named him "an island of fine wine." Ships loaded with amphoras with wonderful wines transported them to different corners of the vast Roman Empire. Many amphoras can be seen in archaeological museums of the cities of Portoferraio and Marciana, as well as other amazing finds that tell of the history of ancient navigation. In the enchanting places on the shores of the bays, the luxurious patrician villas Lingwell, Grotto, Capo Castello grew, whose ruins still make an indelible impression today.

In the Middle Ages, Elba Island belonged to the Pisa Sea Republic. The extraction of iron ore and granite did not stop at that time. Many columns created by skilled stonemasons from granite, mined on the island, adorned Piazza de Miracoli in Pisa. The culture of the Pisan period is represented by some fine examples of architecture: graceful Romanesque churches and the St. Giovanni tower in Composo, built on a huge granite boulder, but above all it is a powerful "fortress" in Marcian, the fortress of Voltarrao in Portoferraio, built during the Etruscan times and reconstructed in the Pisa time.

In 1548 the island of Elba passed to the Medici. Cosimo I built the fortified city of Portoferraio - the true gem of military town planning. Between the sea, the land and architectural structures there was such a perfect harmony that it was originally called Cosmopoli (the Universal City).

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Spaniards, who settled on the shore of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Porto Azzuro, built the imposing fort of San Giacomo, today a secluded and proudly rising hill, various chapels, the temple of Our Lady of Montserrat on the dolomite mountain.

In the eighteenth century, the island was disputed by the Austrians, the Germans, the British and the French through violent diplomatic negotiations and fierce fighting. In 1802 he became a French possession. After the Fontaineble Treaty of 1814, Napoleon, forcibly deposited his imperial powers, was exiled to the island. During the months that he lived here, he carried out a series of economic and social reforms, greatly improving the life of the islanders.

Today the island of Elba is still famous for the whole world with its excellent wines and is a favorite place for tourists.