page_title: Montecristo
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Montecristo / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Monastero di Montecristo
context_page_description: Montecristo, formerly Oglasa, is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea and part of the Tuscan Archipelago. Administratively it belongs to the municipality of Portoferraio in the province of Livorno, Italy. The island has an area of 10.39 km², it is approximately 4.1 km wide at its widest point and is 3.4 km long; the coasts are steep, and extend for 16 km. The island is a state nature reserve and forms part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park.
  Much of the island's fame is derived from the fact that it provides the setting for part of the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas.
context_section_description: The history of the island begins with the Iron Age. The Etruscans exploited the forests of oak needed to fuel the bloomeries of the mainland where the iron ore of Elba's mines was melted. The Greeks gave Montecristo its oldest known name, Oglasa or Ocrasia, after the yellowish colour of the rocks. The Romans, however, knew it under the name Mons Jovis ("Mount Jupiter"), and erected an altar to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus on the highest mountain, of which some traces remain. During the imperial age, the Romans opened some quarries to extract granite, perhaps used in the construction of villas on the islands of Giglio, Elba, and Giannutri.
  Around the middle of the fifth century AD, the caves of the island became home to several hermits escaping from the Vandals of Genseric, the most important of whom was St. Mamilian. They christened the island Mons Christi ("Mountain of Christ"), from which the modern name is derived.
  At the beginning of the seventh century, Pope Gregory the Great submitted them to the monastic rule of the Benedictines. In this period, the Monastery of St. Mamilian was founded; as a result of donations to the Church, its wealth became legendary, and a chapel was built in the St. Mamiliano Cave where the saint had lived in the fifth century. In 1216, the monks joined the order of the Camaldolese. Thanks to the donations of several noble families, the monastery became powerful and rich, and this gave rise to the legend of treasure hidden on the island.
  The island was once a possession of the Republic of Pisa, but was later acquired by the Principality of Piombino. In 1553, Ottoman pirate Dragut, heading for Elba, stormed the monastery, enslaved the monks, and decreed its end. After that, the island was uninhabited. In the second half of the sixteenth century, together with most of the Tuscan Archipelago, it became part of the Stato dei Presidi, a client Spanish state.
  The island was annexed to the French Empire under Napoleon; after his fall, it became the possession of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The first attempts to colonise Monte Cristo, at the time owned by Charles Cambiagi, were made in 1840 by two German hermits, Augustin Eulhardt and Joseph Keim, who eventually abandoned the attempt.  In 1843, other people arrived with the intention of cultivating the island: young Tyrolean Adolph Franz Obermüller, and after a few months, Frenchman Charles Legrand and his girlfriend. Also during 1843, there were other attempts of colonisation by French agriculturalist George Guiboud, which ended with yet another failure. In 1846, some Genoese made a similar effort, while in 1849 Frenchman Jacques Abrial was able to farm the island for three years. In 1852, a rich Englishman named George Watson-Taylor bought Montecristo and transformed Cala Maestra into a garden, planting eucalyptus and many exotic plants, among them the Asiatic Ailanthus altissima, an invasive species which now infests the island. The few modern buildings of Montecristo, such as the Royal Villa, date from this period. The island was then purchased by the Italian government on 3 June 1869 for the sum of £100,000. Montecristo had previously been plundered in 1860 by Italian exiles living in London, who had come to Italy to join up with the Camicie rosse, but were shipwrecked on the island. Faced with the huge sum of money claimed by the owner to repair the damage, the government thought it better to buy the island, which was still uninhabited.
  After other attempts at colonisation in 1878, the Italian government founded a penal colony there, a branch of that in Pianosa.
  In 1889, Montecristo was given to Marquess Carlo Ginori, who restored the Villa and transformed the island into a hunting ground.
  In 1896, Montecristo was the honeymoon destination of Victor Emmanuel III of Savoy (at that time crown prince) and Elena of Montenegro, and after 1899 it became a royal hunting ground for Victor Emmanuel's exclusive use.
  During the Second World War the island, important because of its position between Italy and occupied Corsica, was garrisoned by the Italian arm
caption: Ruins of the Monastery of San Mamiliano
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