Ponza

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For the commune on this island, see Ponza (commune).

Ponza and the Pontine Islands.

The most popular beach at Ponza, Chiaia di Luna.

Ponza or Pontia (Isola Di Ponza) is the largest of the Italian Pontine Islands archipelago, located 33 km south of Cape Circeo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It also the name of the commune of the island, a part of the province of Latina in the Lazio.

1 Geography
2 Economy
3 History
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Geography

Ponza is the largest in the Pontine Islands, which are the remains of extinct volcanos, with a surface area is 7.3 square kilometers. It is a crescent shaped island with one large beach called Spiaggia di Chiaia di Luna (Half Moon Beach) and a few small beaches and has a mostly rocky coast made of kaolin and tufa rock. It has many odd natural rock formations, one looks like a monk, another looks like a giant pair of pants (Arco Naturale O Spaccapolpi), another looks like a patch of flowers and another one looks like mushrooms. It also has Faraglione's or giant stacks made of solid rock.

The island is famed for its Blue Grottos, which were created by the Etruscans. It has the Serpents Grotto and the Roman Gallery which is a Roman tunnel that connects the town of Ponza to the large sandy beach called Chiaia di Luna on its west side. There are Egyptian, Canaanite, Greek, and Phoenician Necropoli ruins at the middle of the island. It has several small villages,among them are Commune di Ponza, Santa Maria and Le Forna. Ponza is often confused with nearby islands like Ischia and Capri, except Ponza has no active volcanism.

[edit] Economy

View of the harbor.

The town of Ponza is a fishing and boating port with a large dock that can accommodate large ships. Its biggest industry is tourism followed by boatbuilding, boat repair and fishing. It is accessible by small car by ferry and pedestrians may travel to the mainland by high speed Aliscafi - hydrofoil boats. The sea there is a distinct greenish blue. Ferries visit Ponza from Naples (Napoli), Terracina and Formia and hydroplane boats visit from Anzio, Italy.

The kaolin mine that was at the northern end of the island has closed down. Kaolin is used in making Koalin-Pectate medicine. The island has many archeological ruins all over. Ponza has a road that goes from north to south, but can accommodate small cars only.

Most of the people who live there , raise rabbits and chickens and other animals in coops for meat to make chicken cacciatore and rabbit cacciatore. Other homely farmed animals are goats, lamb and pidgeons.

[edit] History

The island was inhabited from neolithic through Roman times. According to local legends, Ponza was allegedly named after Roman governor Pontius Pilate, the man who tried Jesus for heresy. This legend has recently come into dispute amongst historians, because the name Pontia appears in Strabo's Geography. It is not known if this is the same name as Ponza or a similar name.

In ancient times the island was called Tyrrhenia. Legend says that Ponza is what is left of the lost island of Tyrrhenia, which somewhat resembles the Atlantis legend. Ponza is said to have been connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land, which sunk into the sea with most of the island below the water, with the parts remaining above sea level. According to legend, there was a large city on the ancient island. There has been significant archeological progress recently that shows this may be true. For example, it was discovered that the harbor floor of Pozzuoli had sunk and risen several times in the last 5,000 years, revealing sunken Roman temples.

Ponza was first colonised by Etruscans from Etruria. The island was heavily forested with giant trees in ancient times, but the forest is gone and the hills are covered with manmade terraces that resemble the terraces of Peru. The tallest hill on the island, called Monte Guardia, still has the rotting stumps of the giant trees over eight feet wide. Crops are grown on these terraces like grapes for wine and cactus pears and fig trees. There are Etruscan ruins on parts of the island jumbled with Roman ruins and "Il Mommio" or "Il Mitreo" (Mummy or Mitre) is a 3,000 year old marble statue that was found in the harbour. The statue is now displayed in a museum in Napoli. It is the oldest one of its kind.

During Roman times, Nero Caesar, eldest brother of Caligula, was deported to Ponza in AD 29, where in 30 he was put to death. Two of his sisters, Agrippina the Younger (mother of the emperor Nero) and Julia Livilla were exiled to Ponza in AD 39 for their complicity in a plot to overthrow Caligula. They were recall to Rome in AD 41. (The tradition that the Emperor Augustus' daughter, Julia the Elder, was banished to Ponza, staying in a mansion named Palazzo Giulia (Julia's Palace) built specially for her on the island, is not borne out by ancient historians.)

Ponza was abandoned during the Middle Ages due to constant raids by Saracens and pirates. In 1552 the Ottoman fleet under the command of Turgut Reis (known as Dragut in the West) defeated the Spanish fleet of Emperor Charles V under the command of the famous Genoese admiral Andrea Doria near Ponza. During the 18th century, the Kingdom of Naples re-colonized the island. Today the island serves as a major tourist attraction with big sandy beaches like Chiaia di Luna or Half Moon Beach.

The island has been captured by the Spanish, English, Greeks, French, Moors, Carthaginians, Libyans, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Anatolians, and Canaanites.

The island became part of the Kingdom of Italy in the mid-1800s and it is now part of the Republic of Italy. The island's isolation destined it to serve as a penal colony by various regimes. During the two decades of fascism, Ponza and the nearby Ventotene, served as a prison for political opponents of Mussolini's regime. The Ethiopian leader Ras Immiru, who was captured by the Italian Army in 1936, was imprisoned in a house in Santa Maria. Mussolini himself was imprisoned on the island for several weeks after being overthrown and arrested in 1943.

The island is well known for the tragic story of Lucia Rosa who threw herself into the Tyrrhenian Sea rather than being forced to marry a man against her wishes. She is viewed by many women around the world as a martyr for women's rights and symbol for human rights.

A few years ago engineers working on an ancient Roman tunnel that connected the harbour part of Ponza to the neighborhood of Santa Maria, used explosives to dig a conduit nearby — they were supposed to use a chisel. The explosive shock shattered and destroyed this 2,100 year old Roman Gallery Tunnel. Residents now must travel far out of the way by road to go back and forth or use a boat.

[edit] References

Greg Annusek. 2005. Hitler's Raid to Save Mussolini: The Most Infamous Commando Operation of World War II. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306813963. Pp. 106-107.