Corals, pirates and the Madonna of the Slaves: the incredible story of Carloforte

Loyal readers of this blog will remember that there is a little Barcelona on Sardinian soil where a variant of Catalan is still spoken today: Alghero. However, this is not the only place in Sardinia where you might feel like you are somewhere else entirely. The small town of Carloforte in the province of Sud Sardegna is located on the island of San Pietro, about 10 km off the south-west coast of the main island. It's a relatively short hop, as you would normally have to travel about 600 km north to find a place with comparable architecture and culture. We are referring to the Ligurian capital of Genoa, which has recognised Carloforte as an honorary municipality since 2004.

How a small Ligurian town ended up in Sardinia is a story as exciting as an adventure novel and as dramatic as an Italian opera libretto. In 1542, members of the Ligurian merchant family Lomellini decided to seek their fortune abroad. They persuaded the inhabitants of the Genoese district of Pegli and neighbouring communities to join them, and so the hopeful emigrants sailed to the island of Tabarca off the coast of Tunisia, where they fished for coral on behalf of the Lomellini family. They did this so thoroughly that two hundred years later, the coral deposits were almost exhausted, making mining and trade no longer profitable. In addition, the Tabarchini, as they now called themselves, had increasing trouble with their Muslim neighbours.

In this situation, King Carlo Emanuele III of Savoy offered the Tabarchini the opportunity to relocate from Tabarca to the uninhabited island of San Pietro in 1738. Some of them seized this opportunity and, out of gratitude, named their newly founded home on the island Carloforte. The thriving community attracted further emigrants from Liguria. Everything seemed to be turning out for the best. However, in 1798, Carloforte was attacked by pirates and 900 of its inhabitants were taken to Tunisia, where they were kept as slaves. Didn't I say it would be like an opera? At least, when I imagine this scene, I hear Verdi's ‘Prisoners' Chorus’ in my ears. And there is another twist that provides material for at least one Italian opera: one of the prisoners became the mother of Bey Ahmad I Al-Husain, who modernised his country and abolished slavery in 1846. Her abducted compatriots, however, were ransomed after five years and returned to their hometown.

Anyone strolling through the pretty alleys of Carloforte today, which ranks among the most beautiful places in Italy, would find it hard to imagine that they were once terrorised by sinister pirates in search of human prey. Only a few preserved sections of the city walls and the fortress bear witness to this turbulent period. But when you enter the Church of the Madonna del Naufrago, you will encounter another witness to that era: the so-called Madonna of the Slaves. This former figurehead of a ship was found on the beach at Tunis on 15 November 1800 by Nicola Moretto from Carloforte. The enslaved Carlofortines regarded the discovery of the Madonna as a divine sign and, after their liberation, took their new patron saint back to Carloforte, where she is still honoured today with a festival on the last Sunday in November.

For another sign of Carloforte's turbulent past, you have to prick up your ears, because just as the inhabitants of Alghero still speak a variant of Catalan today, the descendants of the ‘indigenous people’ of Carloforte have preserved their language, a variant of Ligurian that is only spoken here. And they would certainly agree with this motto: ‘Tanti sun li Zenoeixi, e per lo mondo si desteixi, che und'eli van o stan un'aotra Zenoa ge fan.’ (‘There are Genoese all over the world, and wherever they go, they create a new Genoa.’)

With a Sardinian ‘Adiosu’, I bid you farewell for today.

Yours, Joachim Waßmann

(Featured image: The pretty harbour promenade of Carloforte, with Sardinia in the background. (Image: trolvag , Creative Commons)