Montecristo

12 Jan Montecristo

Covering approximately 10 square kilometers, the island of Montecristo is one of the wildest uncontaminated islands of the entire Tuscan Archipelago National Park. Composed mainly of gray-pink granite, this mysterious island is located south of Elba, west of the Giglio Island and the Monte Argentario.

The Island of Edmond Dantès

The island inspired the writer Alexander Dumas who completed in 1844 his famous novel “The Count of Montecristo”. The tiny island of the Archipelago is the site of an enormous hidden treasure as told by the Abbot Faria and here Dantés, the Count of Montecristo lived here and took refuge after completing his revenge against the oppressors.

An unassailable island

Nowadays Montecristo Island is a very restricted zone. The only four people who live there today are two agents, who every two weeks alternate with another couple of agents. To visit the island it is necessary the permission of an office of the State Forestry Corps of issued mainly to researchers, schools, voluntary associations, with a maximum of 1,000 visitors per year.

Villa-Watson Taylor and the convent

Montecristo’s only natural harbor is Cala Maestra, on the northwest side, where is located Villa Watson-Taylor, whose construction dates back to the mid-nineteenth thanks to an Englishman called Watson Taylor. Also from Cala Maestra, to the northeast, in about an hour you can reach the convent situated about 345 meters above sea level with ruins of an ancient monastery dating back from the 5th century AC.