Elba

Elba: Mount Capanne

Elba, Latin Ilva, island off the west coast of Italy, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Elba has an area of 86 square miles (223 square km) and is the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is famous as Napoleon’s place of exile in 1814–15. Administratively Elba is part of Tuscany regione, Italy. Its coast is precipitous and its interior mountainous, rising to Mount Capanne (3,343 feet [1,019 metres]).

The Etruscans mined iron ore at Elba, which was then called Aethalia (“Smoky Place”) by the Greeks, probably because of the smelting furnaces. The Romans, who called it Ilva, also mined iron ore and established a naval base on the island. Elba was ruled by Pisa in the early Middle Ages, but it passed to Genoa in 1290 and in 1399 to the dukes of Piombino, who ceded it to Cosimo I de Medici of Florence in 1548. A portion of the island, in Spanish hands from 1596 until 1709, was next ruled by Naples. In 1802 it was ceded to France, and, when Napoleon I abdicated in 1814, he was exiled to Elba. He arrived there on May 4. The island was recognized as an independent principality with Napoleon as its ruler until February 26, 1815, on which day he returned to France for the Hundred Days. Thereafter Elba was restored to Tuscany, with which it passed to unified Italy in 1860.

Portoferraio

Napoleon’s chief residence, the Mulini Palace, overlooks the sea near Portoferraio, Elba’s chief town, on the north coast. His summer residence, Villa San Martino, lies 4 miles (6 km) southwest and contains a museum and a collection of engravings. Farther west, at the village of Poggio, is a spring named after Napoleon; it is known for its mineral water.

Elba’s mild climate supports a varied vegetation of Mediterranean type, with rich olive groves and vineyards. Traditional employment included anchovy, sardine, and tuna fishing as well as iron ore mining on the east coast. Tourism has now assumed increasing importance. Popular summer resorts are Procchio, Marciana Marina, Marciana, and those on the Gulf of Biodola in the north, Marina di Campo on the south coast, and Porto Azzurro, with its great Spanish fort (1602; now a prison), facing the mainland. The island has bus services and is connected by passenger and car ferry services with Piombino on the mainland.