Ventotene and the Pontine Islands

The village, seen from the harbour

Piazza Castello

Ventotene is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Campania, Italy. It is the remains of an ancient volcano, and is part of the Pontine Islands. In Roman times it was known as Pandataria and Pandateria. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Image File history File links Ventotene. ... Image File history File links Ventotene. ... Image File history File links Ventotene-castle. ... Image File history File links Ventotene-castle. ... Tyrrhenian Sea. ... Campania is a region of Southern Italy, bordering on Lazio to the north-west, Molise to the north, Puglia to the north-east, Basilicata to the east, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. ... The Pontine Islands The Pontine Islands are an archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west coast of Italy. ...

The island is elongated, with a length of 3 kilometres and a maximum width of about 800 metres. Santo Stefano is located 2 kilometres to the east, and Ponza is 40 kilometres to the west. Santo Stefano and the Pontine Islands. ... Ponza and the Pontine Islands. ...

The island has 633 permanent residents, and had a prison that has been closed.

Best known as the island to which Emperor Tiberius banished his grand-niece Agrippina the elder in 29 AD. She starved herself to death, but it seems equally likely that she was starved on the orders of the emperor, October 18, 33 AD. After her son Gaius (better known as Caligula) became Emperor in 37 AD he went to Pandataria to collect her remains and brought them back to Rome. Tiberius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero (November 16, 42 BC – March 16 AD 37), was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in AD 14 until his own death in 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Nero and Livia. ... Agrippina the Elder Julia Vipsania Agrippina (circa 14 BC– AD 33), known as Agrippina Major (Agrippina the Elder), was one of the most powerful women in the Roman Empire in the early 1st century AD. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa by his third wife Julia Caesaris, was... Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus (August 31, 12 – January 24, 41), most commonly known as Caligula, was the third Roman Emperor and a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from 37 to 41. ...

This is also the island to which St. Flavia Domitilla, for whom the eponymous catacombs in Rome are named and who hid many saints (or recovered their remains when they were martyred), was banished. She was granddaughter of Emperor Vespasian. She may have died here.

A prison camp was created under Mussolini on the island with up to 700 opponents, including 400 communists, between 1939 and 1943. One of them was Altiero Spinelli who wrote there a text now known as the Ventotene Manifesto, promoting the idea of a federal Europe after the war. Benito Mussolini created a fascist state through the use of propaganda, total control of the media and disassembly of the working democratic government. ... Altiero Spinelli (1907-1986) was an Italian citizen and lifelong advocate of European federalism. ...

During World War 2, The island also served as home to an 114 man Nazi garrison that defended a key radar station. On the night of September 8, 1943, An American PT Boat silently slipped into Ventotene's harbor and offloaded 46 American Paratroopers from the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion. The paratroopers quickly met with a local, exiled from the Italian mainland, who then accidentally misinformed the German commander that there was "a regiment" of paratroopers on the island, deposited by "a fleet" of allied ships. Terrified, the German commander demolished his own positions and weapons, and then surrendered to the weaker US Force before realizing his mistake. So it was that by 3am, September 9, 1943, the island Ventotene was liberated without a shot being fired. German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... During World War II, the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion (509th PIB) was the first combat paratrooper unit of the United States Army. ...

External links

• Satellite Map of Ventotene