THE HISTORY OF ELBA

Loc. Elba (Livorno)

The island of Elba has been theatre of great events: civilization of the Mediterranean does not exist that has not left traces important of just the passage. Nature, art and culture millenarian create an only atmosphere, recall extraordinary scenes, fruit of encounter between various people. For the Etruschi Elba constituted an inexhaustible source of wealth: already in the VIII sec. To C. took advantage of the mines and exported the iron in all the Mediterranean basin, gaining some enormous riches. The furnaces rose therefore that day and night fused minerals with high flares and, as Aristotle narrates, dettero origin to the Aethalia name (spark), attributed to Elba from the Greek navigators. Indelebili signs impressero the Doctors to Portoferraio (in honor of Cosimo of the Doctors the city called Cosmopoli) and the Spanish, that they erected of against the fortress of S. Giacomo and Forte Focardo to Blue Port. In XVIII the century Elba was contesa from Austrians, Germans, English and French with phrenetic negotiations diplomatic or upset battles, until it was assigned in "full property and sovereignty" to Napoleone Bonaparte that, in 10 months of government, left prints meaningful: it constructed roads, it reorganized the mining economy, it increased the production and the export of the wine.