The Roman Columns in Campo nell'Elba

In the vicinity of Cavoli beach, in the mountainous territory of Campo nell'Elba, there is a truly unique site that testifies to the glorious history of the island of Elba and its link with the extraction and processing of granite.

Scattered among the vegetation, numerous monolithic columns still only roughly sketched, or separated from the rock by the insertion of fig-wood wedges and double-pointed pickaxes, are reminders of the hard work of quarrymen and stonemasons who, for centuries, worked hard to provide valuable material for churches and monuments.

The granite of the island of Elba, in fact, is also found in the buildings of the Pantheon and in the Colosseum, in the two ancient early Christian basilicas of San Giovanni in Laterano, and San Paolo fuori la mura.

Columns modelled on the Elbe were found during excavations at the Quirinal, the Palatine, the Colosseum and, according to the testimony of a German scholar, in theCathedral of Aachen, transferred here by Charlemagne who took them from Cologne, where they seem to have been brought by the will of the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine.