La Maddalena
| La Maddalena | ||
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| Waters | Tyrrhenian Sea | |
| Geographical location | 41 ° 15 ′ N , 9 ° 25 ′ E | |
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| Number of islands | approx. 62 | |
| Main island | La Maddalena | |
| Total land area | 49.37 km² | |
| Residents | 12,000 (2016) | |
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The La Maddalena Archipelago ( Arcipelago di La Maddalena ) is an Italian archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northeast coast of Sardinia . It consists of around 62 islands , including seven larger islands ( La Maddalena , Caprera , Santo Stefano , Spargi , Budelli , Santa Maria and Razzoli ) as well as numerous small islands, and belongs to the historical region of Gallura .
The eponymous municipality of La Maddalena , located on the archipelago, has 11,051 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) and belongs to the province of Sassari .
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geography
The archipelago is located on the Strait of Bonifacio just off the coast of Sardinia, between Sardinia and Corsica . It forms the La Maddalena Archipelago National Park, which is to be expanded into a cross-border park with Corsican nature reserves. The islands are very rocky and have very beautiful beaches. The municipality covers an area of 49.37 km², the population density is 236.33 inhabitants / km².
history
Until early modern times
The Romans named the islands Ilva , Fussa and Bucina . After the end of the Western Roman Empire , the archipelago remained uninhabited until Benedictines settled there in the 12th century . Like all of Sardinia, the archipelago was disputed between the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa , which had fought together against the Saracens in the region . In the Middle Ages, the archipelago was known under the name Bicinara , from the 16th century onwards as Santa Maria Magdalena , with the colloquial term isole intermedie or "intermediate islands " long prevailing. After the Ottomans had devastated the Benedictine monasteries in 1584 , the islands remained deserted again. In the 17th century, Corsican shepherds and their herds settled on La Maddalena, later fishermen from mainland Italy followed. 1720 was the Kingdom of Sardinia to the in Turin resident House of Savoy . The strategically important archipelago on the Strait of Bonifacio soon became a bone of contention between the Savoy and the Republic of Genoa, to which Corsica belonged until 1769.
The naval base
In 1767, Charles Emmanuel III ordered. from Savoy to occupy the archipelago militarily and to build a fortified naval base there. The first fortifications were built on the main island at Guardia Vecchia , followed by the fortress of San Vittorio , the coastal batteries of Balbiano and Sant'Agostino , the fortresses of Sant'Andrea , Santa Teresa (Sant'Elmo) and Carlo Felice . Today's main town, La Maddalena, is essentially based on these fortification works. First a watchtower was built on Santo Stefano, and later the fortress of San Giorgio .
In the First Coalition War , a French fleet with landing forces, some of which were under the command of the later Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte , tried to conquer the islands in 1793, which failed in the battle at La Maddalena . The few defenders were led by NCO Domenico Millelire . In the following years, British naval units under Admiral Nelson used the archipelago as an anchorage. The small Sardinian-Piedmontese Navy under Giorgio Des Geneys also stayed on site.
After the Napoleonic Wars, the fortifications lost much of their military value due to the development of artillery and also due to insufficient maintenance. Between 1852 and 1856 the government in Turin had the facilities comprehensively examined and then ordered their disarmament in July 1857. Parts were subsequently used as a prison camp.
When France occupied Tunisia in 1881, a country that Italy counted to its sphere of influence, Franco-Italian relations deteriorated dramatically. Among other things, Italy responded by rebuilding the La Maddalena naval base. This step had been considered since 1873, but was not taken until 1887. The archipelago's defense system was brought up to date within ten years. In 1889 a torpedo boat base and a naval hospital were opened, in 1891 work began on the naval arsenal , and in 1893 on the Palazzo dell'ammiragliato , the admiralty building that housed the naval command for Sardinia. By 1900, the work on the base, which, including its anchorages, was now considered unassailable, was largely completed. The navy largely shaped the town of La Maddalena. From the end of the 18th century, La Maddalena provided the navy with a disproportionately large number of seamen, including the naval officer Primo Longobardo, who is still well known in the archipelago .
During the two world wars, mainly torpedo boats and submarines were stationed in La Maddalena. As a rule, large warships of the ocean-going fleet could only use the sheltered anchorages, as the quay facilities were insufficient. Before and during the Second World War, attempts were made to better protect the archipelago against air raids, but could not prevent Allied bombers from causing severe damage in La Maddalena on April 10, 1943, sinking the cruiser Trieste and seriously damaging the cruiser Gorizia .
In the 1950s, the Marina Militare rebuilt the base and the 134,600 m² arsenal, which in the 1970s employed almost 700 workers. In the following decades the importance of the base and the arsenal steadily declined, which is why it was completely disbanded after the turn of the millennium. For a G8 summit meeting planned in La Maddalena in 2009 and then held in L'Aquila , a congress center was built on the site of the former arsenal , which then remained largely unused. The Italian Navy is now only represented by a NCO school on the main island of La Maddalena.
From August 1972 to February 2008, the US Navy maintained a nuclear submarine base on Santo Stefano . The presence of nuclear submarines in the area of the national park was not only criticized by the local population, especially after the USS Hartford was damaged by grounding in October 2003. In September 2007, the US Navy finally withdrew the submarine tender USS Emory S. Land stationed there and gave up the base entirely a few months later. Since then, the Italian Navy has been operating it, which announced a limited expansion and renovation of the quayside in 2016. The Guardia del Moro underground ammunition depot also belongs to the base on Santo Stefano .
Economy and Transport
After the military had largely withdrawn, La Maddalena still faces significant economic and social problems. While the neighboring communities on the mainland were able to diversify their economic activities somewhat over time and benefit from a less isolated location, La Maddalena remained heavily dependent on the military. For a long time it was demanded that it be withdrawn in order to be able to better use the tourist potential of the archipelago, but the conversion of the military facilities ( marina ) was less successful than expected.
La Maddalena can be reached by boat from Palau in Sardinia . In the high season, up to 80 car ferries connect La Maddalena with the Sardinian mainland every day. There is a bridge to the neighboring island of Caprera .
Others
- The local dialect, Isulanu called, is a mixture between Galluresisch (a variant of Sardinian ) and Corsican with influences by the dialect of Genoa .
- Parts of Caprera were acquired by the Italian national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi at the end of 1856 , who initially lived there in a simple hut, later a large house in the style of South American manor houses, which Casa Bianca built and died there on June 2, 1882. He is also buried on Caprera, and his house is now a museum. The house and grave are Italian national monuments .
- Budelli has had only one resident since 1989, Mauro Morandi, who is now over 80 years old.
- The phone code is + 39-0789.
Web links
- Website of the municipality of La Maddalena (it.)
- Website of the Parco Nazionale dell'Arcipelago di La Maddalena (it.)
- Timo Lutz: War and Peace in the La Maddalena Archipelago . Website sardinien.com - the virtual travel magazine
- La Nuova Sardegna from August 15, 2016 on the planned work on Santo Stefano
Individual evidence
- ↑ arte documentation about the only inhabitant of Budelli , accessed on January 20, 2020