The prison island turned park with its white donkeys
Off the north western tip of Sardinia, the island of Asinara has a unique history. In 1885 the Italian state evicted its few inhabitants, shepherds and fishermen, and turned the island into a penal colony and a quarantine station; during the First World War tens of thousands of Austro-Hungarian prisoners were held here, many of whom died of cholera. In the twentieth century it became a maximum-security prison, where Mafia bosses such as Totò Riina and terrorists were held, and where in 1985 the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were secretly housed to prepare the great Mafia trial. The prison closed in 1998, and in 1997 the island became a National Park.
Its long isolation has preserved an intact nature: a wild landscape of granite and schist hills, Mediterranean scrub and coves of transparent water, protected by a marine reserve, and a rich fauna, including wild boar, mouflon, peregrine falcons and the famous white donkeys (asini bianchi) of the Asinara, an albino breed that lives only here. You can visit the abandoned prison buildings, such as the Cala d'Oliva penitentiary and the Fornelli high-security prison, the old quarantine station of Cala Reale and the ossuary of the Austro-Hungarian prisoners. Access is only by authorised boats from Stintino or Porto Torres; on the island you move on foot, by bicycle, electric car, minibus or 4x4 tours.
Tip: private cars are not allowed; book a guided tour with lunch, or rent an e-bike in Cala Reale.
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