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Santo Stefano () is an island in the
/ref> This did not include the prison, which belongs to the Italian state. On 26 July 2021 the European Observer reported that a €70m refurbishment project was to be announced to turn the island into a high-level European think-tank, academy and open-air museum as part of a European integration project'Prison island' birthplace of EU reborn as think-tank venue
Santo Stefano () is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea (; it, Mar Tirreno , french: Mer Tyrrhénienne , sc, Mare Tirrenu, co, Mari Tirrenu, scn, Mari Tirrenu, nap, Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian pe ...
off the west coast of Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, and part of the Pontine Islands
The Pontine Islands (, also ; it, Isole Ponziane ) are an archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Lazio region, Italy. The islands were collectively named after the largest island in the group, Ponza. The other islands in the archipe ...
. It is roughly circular, with a diameter of less than , and it is located east of the nearby island of Ventotene
Ventotene (; locally ; la, Pandataria or , from grc, Πανδατερία, Pandatería, or ) is one of the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Gaeta right at the border between Lazio and Campania, Italy. The municipality ...
.
Overview
Like the rest of the archipelago, the island was created by volcanic activity. It is dominated by an old prison built by theBourbons
The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spani ...
who owned the island, completed in 1797 and in use until 1965. It originally had 99 cells 4 meters by 4 meters, to house 4 inmates, which were later halved to double the number of cells. The tower in the middle is not a watchtower, but a chapel, where inmates watched the celebration of mass. Built for 600 inmates, it had 800 in 1817 (and 400 on Ventotene). People imprisoned included Carmine Crocco
Carmine Crocco, known as Donatello or sometimes Donatelli (Rionero in Vulture, 5 June 1830 – Portoferraio, 18 June 1905), was an Italian brigand. Initially a soldier for the Bourbons, he later fought in the service of Giuseppe Garibaldi.
...
, the most important brigand during the Italian unification
The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
, and the anarchist Gaetano Bresci
Gaetano Bresci (; November 10, 1869May 22, 1901) was an Italian-American anarchist who assassinated King Umberto I of Italy on July 29, 1900. Bresci was the first European regicide not to be executed, as capital punishment in Italy had been a ...
, who killed King Umberto I in 1900. He was imprisoned there for a year before being found hanged in his cell. During the Fascist regime, other prisoners were the future President of Italy Sandro Pertini
Alessandro "Sandro" Pertini (; 25 September 1896 – 24 February 1990) was an Italian socialist politician who served as the president of Italy from 1978 to 1985.
Early life
Born in Stella (Province of Savona) as the son of a wealthy landown ...
, Umberto Terracini
Umberto Elia Terracini (Genoa, 27 July 1895 – Rome, 6 December 1983) was an Italian politician.
Biography Early years
Terracini was born in Genoa on 27 July 1895 to a Jewish family originally from Piedmont. After completing his elementa ...
, Giorgio Amendola
Giorgio Amendola (21 November 1907 – 5 June 1980) was an Italian writer and politician. He is regarded and often cited as one of the main precursors of the Olive Tree. Born in Rome in 1907, Amendola was the son of Lithuanian intellectual Eva K ...
, Lelio Basso
Lelio Basso (25 December 1903 – 16 December 1978) was an Italian democratic socialist politician, political scientist and journalist.
Early life
Lelio Basso was born in Varazze (in the province of Savona) into a Liberal bourgeois family. In ...
, Mauro Scoccimarro
Mauro Scoccimarro (30 October 1895 – 2 January 1972) was an Italian economist and communist politician. He was one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party and the minister of finance between 1945 and 1947.
Early life and education
Scocc ...
, Giuseppe Romita
Giuseppe Romita (7 January 1887 – 15 March 1958) was an Italian socialist politician. In his life he served several times as a cabinet minister and member of the Parliament.
Early life and career
The son of Guglielmo Romita and Maria Gianneli, ...
, Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli (31 August 1907 – 23 May 1986) was an Italian politician, political theorist and European federalist, referred to as one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
A communist and militant anti-fascist in his youth, he spe ...
and Ernesto Rossi.
In October 1860, part of the Bourbon troops left the island for the siege of Gaeta.
During a revolt
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
, some prisoners proclaimed the Republic of Santo Stefano.
The prisoners legislated a statute and remained autonomous until January 1861, when a Navy contingent recovered the island.
The island has been uninhabited since the closure of the prison, except for tourists that visit by boat during the day.
The island has had several names, such as Partenope, Palmosa, Dommo Stephane and Borca since Roman times.
The island which is partly privately owned, was put up for sale in 2012 for the price of €20,000,000.rightmove.co.uk/ref> This did not include the prison, which belongs to the Italian state. On 26 July 2021 the European Observer reported that a €70m refurbishment project was to be announced to turn the island into a high-level European think-tank, academy and open-air museum as part of a European integration project
Wildlife
This island once harbored anendemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
lizard, the Santo Stefano Lizard (''Podarcis sicula sanctistephani''). It became extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
in 1965, probably due to feral cats and a snake
Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...
species.David Day, 1981, The Doomsday Book of Animals, Ebury Press, London.
See also
*List of islands of Italy
This is a list of islands of Italy. There are over 400 islands in Italy, including islands in the Mediterranean Sea (including the marginal seas: Adriatic Sea, Ionian Sea, Libyan Sea, Ligurian Sea, Sea of Sardinia, Tyrrhenian Sea, and inland isl ...
References
External links
* {{authority control Islands of Lazio Province of Latina