From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Maddalena archipelago

Group of islands in the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia

Summary

Group of islands in the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia

Field	Value
name	Maddalena archipelago
native_name	Arcipelago di La Maddalena
native_name_link	Italian language
native_name_lang	it
sobriquet
image_name	La Maddalena Archipel Aerial view.jpg
image_caption	Aerial view of the archipelago
coordinates
location	Strait of Bonifacio (Tyrrhenian Sea)
GridReference
area_km2
length_km
width_km
coastline_km
country	Italy
country_admin_divisions_title	Region
country_admin_divisions	Sardinia
country_admin_divisions_title_1	Province
country_admin_divisions_1	Gallura Northeast Sardinia
country_largest_city_type	town
country_largest_city	La Maddalena
country_area_km2
country_1_area_km2

The Maddalena Archipelago is a group of islands in the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica (France) and Sardinia (Italy). The whole archipelago makes the territory of the La Maddalena comune in Sardinia.

Geography

The archipelago consists of seven main islands and numerous small islets. The largest one is the island of La Maddalena (), with a homonymous town, which is the largest settlement in the archipelago. The other six islands, in order of size, are: Caprera, Spargi, Santo Stefano, Santa Maria, Budelli and Razzoli. Only Maddalena, Caprera, and Santo Stefano are inhabited; Budelli had a single caretaker until 2021.

Lying adjacent to the tourist resort of the Costa Smeralda, Maddalena has the same clear waters and wind-blown granite coastlines but remains a haven for wildlife. It is a designated national park, the Parco Nazionale Arcipelago di La Maddalena. It is a popular tourist destination, especially among boaters. In 2006 it was placed on the tentative list for consideration as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

History

The islands have been inhabited since prehistoric times. They were known by the Romans as Cunicularia and were a busy shipping area during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The Maddalenas have a strategic value and were the object of a dispute between the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa in the 13th century and subsequently was abandoned for a long period before being colonised again by Corsican shepherds and by Sardinian settlements in the 18th century. Napoleon Bonaparte, Admiral Nelson, and Giuseppe Garibaldi all have historical links with the area.

The main access into and out of the archipelago is via the frequent car ferries from Palau on Sardinia that run into La Maddalena. There are roads only on Maddalena and Caprera.

From 1973 until 2008 the Santo Stefano island was a home for the NATO naval base which housed US nuclear submarines. Controversy arose in 2003 when the USS *Hartford *ran aground in the vicinity of the while on maneuvers in the area.

References

(27 April 2021). "Italian Island Budelli to Become Unoccupied".
"NSA History".
de Tisi, Claudio. "Arcipelago de La Maddalena".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

islands-of-sardinia archipelagoes-of-italy province-of-sassari

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Maddalena archipelago — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report