L'arenella Hotel - Giglio History

Some history

The Giglio Island, i.e.: “the Island of goats” (whose name comes from Aegilium, a Latin transformation of the Old Greek word for ‘goat’) was inhabited as early as the Stone Age and was later chosen by the Etruscans as a military outpost.

A peak in terms of splendour came to the Giglio during the I Century b.C. under the rule of the patrician Dionigi-Enobardi family, the owners of a monumental villa, as the island became a crucial maritime crossway for trading among provinces, as testified by Julius Caesar in the first book of his Civil War, by Pliny in his Natural History, and by Anthony Augustus in his Maritime Itineraries.

In 805 a.D. the island was donated by Emperor Charlemagne to the Three Fountains Abbey, but after several vicissitudes it was passed on to the Aldobrandeschi, then to the Pannocchieschi, to the Gaetani, to the Orsini and then to the municipality of Perugia. In 1241 Giglio was the theatre of the sea battle where Frederic II’s fleet destroyed the Genoese fleet carrying prelates to Rome for the Council summoned by Pope Gregory IX against the Emperor.

From 1264 Giglio was ruled by the Republic of Pisa, a trace of whose presence can be seen in the structure of Giglio Castello, an ancient village on the top of the Island. In the following centuries Giglio had many dominations, including that of the Medici family of Florence, from the early XV Century, and experienced Saracen forays. The worst one of these was by carried out by pirate Khair ad-Din, also called Redbeard.

The 18th November 1799 marks the end of ‘barbaric’ incursions due to the heroic victory of the Giglio people against the “Turks”. Following the closure of its pyrite mines in 1962, a completely new adventure began for the Giglio island: tourism.