Unspoiled places, isolated landscapes, historical events, the island in the extreme north-western tip of Sardinia is a world to discover
Province: Province of Sassari
Maximum altitude: 408 m a.s.l.
Location: Sea of Sardinia
Maximum altitude: 408 m a.s.l.
Location: Sea of Sardinia
THE PARK
Asinara, the second largest Sardinian island after Sant’Antioco, has a narrow shape, elongated in a north-south direction with a very jagged coastline, indicating a considerable variety of habitats. The island has an extremely unique historical, environmental and legal situation. Although the first remains of human presence date back to the Neolithic, nature was able to be preserved thanks to a succession of events that made it take on the unattractive name of Devil’s Island: it was a quarantine health station, a prison camp in the first world war and one of the main Italian super-prisoners during the period of terrorism of the 70s and in the fight against organized crime up to the establishment of the Park. This isolation, which lasted over a century, has caused on the one hand the birth of the charm and mystery of the island and on the other the indirect conservation of some intact and virgin areas, making it a unique heritage of inestimable value on an international level.
THE AGRICULTURAL CRIMINAL COLOGNE
The history of the Asinara prisons begins far back in time, in 1855, when the approximately 500 shepherds and fishermen settled on the island were removed by royal decree: the island was in fact transformed into a quarantine health station and an agricultural penal colony. . At that time, therefore, the first cells appeared on the Asinara. During the First World War, however, it was the entire island that became a single large prison: in fact, about 25,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners were diverted to the Asinara, brought here to remain under medical observation.
THE PRISON OF FORNELLI
Built at the end of the nineteenth century, it has a rectangular structure and covers an area of about 8000 square meters. During the Second World War it was used as a shelter for people suffering from turbeculosis, while in the 1970s it was transformed into a maximum security prison, also hosting inmates of the Red Brigades and Camorra. In the Eighties it “welcomed” mafia members subjected to the 41 bis regime. It was decommissioned in 1998.
ASINARA PRISONS
There are about ten branches of the Asinara prisons, scattered throughout the 52 square kilometers of the island, each of which has gone over time to collect prisoners of different types, depending on the crimes committed. The first detention facility to be built was that of Fornelli, south of the island. In the seventies it became a maximum security prison, to house members of the Red Brigades – such as Curcio for example – and the Anonima Sarda. Precisely the Fornelli prison jumped on the front pages of the whole country in ’77 due to a violent revolt, which led to a marked tightening of the island’s control system. Another maximum security prison in Asinara is the bunker of Cala d’Oliva, which as anticipated hosted Riina, as well as Cutolo. On the island there is also the prison of Santa Maria, which collected inmates for drug dealing, those of Tumbarino, Stretti, Trabuccato, Campo Faro, Capo Perdu, Sa Zonca and Elighe Mannu.
