Granite Artifacts of Elba



The history linked to the granite of Elba Island, takes us to the western side of the island, where many evidences of granite have been found, such as artifacts and Roman columns.
Below we point out some perfectly intact open air artifacts that can be seen on the western side of Elba.

Near the beach of Cavoli, following an uphill road, after few hundred metres, there is an open space that hosts at its centre a granite boulder, strangely worked. Its shape resembles a Ship, hence the name that people from Elba gave to this granite sculpture (La Nave di Granito). Its length is about four meters and its width of two and a half metres.
You will be able to notice that at the ends of the boulder there are just sketched some decorations which evoke the shapes of a chunky boat's fore and aft. Looking closely it is still possible to see these sketches even though the traces of chiselling have corroded in time.

What actually this granite represented is not easy to say. The oral tradition tells us that this artifact should have been on the way to Florence around the sixteenth century to be placed in the Boboli Gardens. However, this artifact was abandoned and replaced with another one.

Another important granite artifacts is to be found above Seccheto, taking the uphill road towards the location of Vallebuia. After few hundreds metres you will find a signpost (archeological artifact) on the left indicating a small walking path. The path carved in the Mediterranean maquis goes down a few dozens of metres until an open space where lies abandoned a majestic column of granite.
The column is about nine metres long and its diameter is over one metres long. At first sight it seems completely finished on the upper and side parts, while on the lower part it is still connected to the boulder.

Another similar column with capital can be found above Seccheto in the location of "Polveriera". Even in this case, the oral tradition tells us that this columns was to be taken to Florence in the twelfth century to embellish the Cathedral's masterpiece.

This news was then confirmed by Sebastiano Lombardi who citing the historian Ughellio (Annalium de rebus pisanorum ab anno 947 ad annum 1170) said in 1159:" From the cave of Seccheto, were constructed three columns by San Giovanni and they were then brought to Pisa by Lionetto Cionetti and Arrigo Lancellotti".
In the beach of Seccheto, at about 2-3 metres below the sea, you could see three very large columns until a few decades ago when they were still visible, though today they are covered by sand. This story suggests us that the areas of Seccheto and Cavoli were very much rich in terms of caves and for that frequented by skilled stonemasons who used to take these materials for their artifacts.

The main artifacts date back to the Roman times, remembering us that the granite of Elba is present in some of the major construction in the world such as Pantheon and Colosseum, as well as in the two paleochristian churches of San Giovanni in Laterano and San Paolo fuori le mura.

Vasari also tells us that seven enormous columns used to build the Pantheon in Rome (twelve metres high with a diameter of about one metre and half), come from the granite caves of Seccheto.

Besides during the excavation of Quirinale, Palatino and Colosseum were also found some columns built in Elba.

Another evidence is the one reported by german researcher J.Noggerathm (Archiv fur mineralogie, Berlin 1844), claiming that eighteen huge granite columns are in the cathedral of Aquisgrana. It seems that these columns were firstly brought to Colonia by the empress Elena (mother of Constantine), and later transferred from Colonia to Aquisgrana by Charlemagne.

 

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