Giglio

History

The modern island was formed probably 4.5 to 5 million years ago, and has been inhabited since the Stone Age. Later, it was potentially an Etruscan military stronghold. Under the Romans it was known as Aegilium Insula or Igillia Insula. It was an important base in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and was cited briefly by Julius Caesar in his De Bello Civili, by Pliny, by Pomponius Mela, and by the fifth-century AD poet Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, who celebrated Igilium's successful repulse of the Getae and safe harbor for Romans, in a time when Igilium's slopes were still wooded.

In 805, the island was donated by Charlemagne to the abbey of the Tre Fontane in Rome, and was later successively a possession of the Aldobrandeschi, Pannocchieschi, Caetani, and Orsini families, and of the municipality of Perugia. In 1241, the Sicilian and Pisan fleet of Emperor Frederick II destroyed a Genoese fleet in the Battle of Giglio. From 1264, Isola del Giglio was a Pisan dominion, then, after being seized by the Spanish fleet, it was ceded to Antonio Piccolomini, nephew of Pius II from whom it passed to the Medici family in 1558. It suffered several Saracen attacks, which ended only in 1799.

Throughout its history, the island was renowned for its mineral ore: many columns and buildings in Rome were built with the Gigliese granite.

On 14 June 1646, Grand Admiral Jean Armand de Maillé-Brézé was killed at the Battle of Orbetello near the island, at sunset on his flagship the Grand Saint Louis.

In 2012, the cruise ship Costa Concordia foundered off the coast of the island.

In July 2020, the island attracted global attention because it had not yet experienced any known cases of COVID-19 in the COVID-19 pandemic.