Elba Island, Napoleon and villa Mulini

NAPOLEON VILLAS - ELBA ISLAND

Napoleone Villa's - The isle of Elba is well noted in Italy and the world over for it's natural beauty, and its richness of mineral ores found beneath the surface, Its notoriety is also bound to a name: Napoleon Bonaparte. Elba represented a place of brief exile for Napoleon where he reigned as Emperor for less than a year between 1814 and 1815 before escaping. From there he went on to fight the battle of Waterloo and after defeat was further exiled to the British island of St. Helena in the middle of the Atlantic. Elba was suddenly found at the center of worldwide attention in April 1814 when with the Treaty of Fontainebleau Napoleon was exiled to the small island and given the title of Emperor and rule over the small land. Receiving sovereignty over the island Napoleon conducted himself in a way that suggests he intended to live out his days as ruler. This is supported by the detail in which he decorated his residences, the efficiency of his army and the strict protocol he imposed on the court. All over Elba there are signs that attest to the frenetic activity that governed his ten-month course as ruler of his Elban empire?. Amongst these we can document the mining activity, the projected steel plant, the organization of new hospital structures or improvement of older ones, care and selection over the vineyards, and the introduction of unusual horticulture such as olives and potatoes, all of which improved livability. But it is at Portoferraio where the best conserved and concrete testimony to Napoleon's presence on Elba is visible. (May 3, 1814 ? February 26,1815)

NAPOLEON - VILLA MULINI

Returning to the center of the city we climb from the large parking lot at the foot of the Medicean bastions, through the arch of the Porta a Terra, via Sebastiano Lambardi e via del Carmine where stands the ex ?Carmine church of the hospital by the same name built in 1617 by the Marchese Corbello. Continuing up Via V. Hugo, through the 16th century archway you arrive at the Palazzo dei Mulini (the Mill Palace) named for the former windmills that once occupied the site. This was the official residence of Napoleon and his court. Rooms of interest: the office, the reception hall, the cloak-room (with the Napoleonic flag of Elba: white and red with three gold bees), the bedroom, the library with hundreds of volumes including the prestigious collection of Moniteur Universel from 1790 to 1813, the gallery, the officer's hall, and the first floor quarters of Napoleon's sister, Paolina Borghese. At the side of the villa is the recently renovated ballroom, beneath the imposing structure of Forte Stella lies the garden with its statues and fountains. From the villa we descend towards the dock by way of the fortified Medicean walls and continue down Via Ferrandini where a head stone marks the memory of Donna Letizia the mother of Napoleon who had lived there for a time. Half way up this steep road a cross street, Via della Misericordia, leads to a church by the same name. Housed in the museum annex is a bronze mask of Napoleon as well as a cast of his hand obtained in Sant'Elena by Dr. Antonmarchi, who performed the autopsy on the great exile. Continuing down the renaissance staircase in red stone, and following alongside the Palazzo Municipale (where from May 3, 1814 Napoleon resided for some days), one arrives in the center of the city.