Elba's Palazzino dei Mulini was Napoleon's official residence while in exile. (Mandred Hofer/LPI)
Posted on 09/14/2011 3:41:18 PM PDT by decimon
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Elba has been inhabited since the Iron Age. Ligurian tribes were followed by Etruscans and then Greeks. A rotating cast of residents, refugees and pirates made appearances in subsequent centuries including the Pax Romana, bands of North African raiders, the Spanish and Cosimo I de' Medici, who in the mid-16th Century founded and fortified the port town of Cosmopolis, today's Portoferraio. But none of these occupants did more in so little time as France’s all time greatest military mastermind and badboy, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Though the Emperor escaped less than a year after being “banished” to Elba (the penal equivalent of a shoulder massage), Napoleon left a lasting mark on the island and its inhabitants who, even now, almost 200 years later, still say a Mass each May for his soul at Chiesa della Misericordia.
Indeed, upon his arrival, Napoleon spun into a veritable tornado of activity, ordering a plethora of public works, like boosting agriculture, road-building, marsh draining and a thorough overhaul of the legal and education systems. He also oversaw improvements to the island's iron-ore mines, the revenue of which now kept him comfortably stocked in hair care products.
Nine months later, in a panic over rumours that nervous European leaders were scheming to have him shipped off to the remote Atlantic island of Saint Helena, Napoleon slipped aboard a departing ship and strode back into Paris for one last run at ruling Europe (the Hundred Days), ending in his defeat at Waterloo. He was summarily dumped on Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.
Despite remarkable work and intervention during his stay, the only appreciable evidence of Napoleon’s internment on Elba are his two homes Villa dei Mulini and Villa Napoleonica di San Martino.
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(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Miserable, non ping.
Elba was certainly not Devil’s Island.
ML/NJ
Bump
St. Helena is a pretty cool place and very isolated. The only Royal Navy cruise ship goes there as a supply ship with cabins and nice service. Back in time.
Napolean was more than lucky to be able to end his days there.
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Thanks decimon. |
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When the ancients ring, ya gotta ping.
Thanks for the ping!
Napoleon Dynamite!
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