Ventotene is an Italian small island of volcanic origin, located at broad of the Campanie, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Long, its maximum width three kilometers is of 800 meters and it counts 633 inhabitants. It belongs to the Îles Pontines. In antiquity, it was known under the name of Pandataria or Pandateria , and with the Middle Ages, Ventatere . The island is a place appreciated for the practice of deep-sea diving. It forms with Santo Stefano a protected maritime zone.

History

The first traces of settlement go back to the Bronze Age.

Under the Roman Empire, the island, property of the Emperor, was often used as place of exile for personalities of imperial row fallen in disgrace. Let us quote the case of Julia, girl of Auguste in 2 av. J. - C. which was relegated there for five years to have violated a new law on public morals, of Agrippine elder the by the emperor Tibère in 29 a. J. - C, or that of Holy Flavie Domitilla, the little girl of the emperor Vespasien, exiled in the island. Archaeological vestiges of this period are visible on the island, in particular the old port dug in the rock and a villa of Ier century.

The most visible monument of the island today is the castle, makes of it a turn-fortress of two stages at square base, built in 1768. It shelters today the town hall and the museum.

Ventotene becomes a detention center at the XIXe century. The semicircular penitentiary of the close small island Santo Stefano is finished in 1797 and counts 99 cells of 4,50 m out of 4,20 laid out out of three levels around a circular court having a hexagonal central watchtower, that is to say what to accommodate 600 prisoners. One counts there however, in 1817,800 prisoners. Four hundred others reside at Ventotene. As from 1870, only Santo Stefano plays a pénitenciaire part. Gaetano Bresci, anarchist having assassinated the king Umberto I in 1900, was held there one year before being hung in its cell.

With the introduction of the mode of Mussolini, the opponents with Fascism are placed in residence forced in a detention center built on the island of Ventotene as from 1932. The center becomes more important after the closing of that of Ponza in 1938. Thirteen hutments are then built with a capacity of 700 places (they will be destroyed in 1980). They will accommodate more than 800 prisoners as from June 1940. The prisoners were locked up there the night but could circulate in semi-freedom in the village in the course of the day. The safety was ensured by 350 guards, police officers and soldiers. The most important group among the prisoners was that of the Communists, more than 400. The prisoners were released on July 25th, 1943. Among them, Altiero Spinelli wrote there in 1941 a " Manifeste" for plain Europe which contributed to the launching of a movement in favor of the European Fédéralisme. It was buried in 1986 in the cemetery of Ventotene and a federalistic training seminar is held in the island each year at the beginning of September.

After the fascistic period, the detention center of Ventotene closes, but Santo Stefano remains a prison for the prisoners of common right and will remain it until its closing on February 2nd, 1965.

See too

• Ventotene (common)

Bonds external

• www.ventotene.org