Place · city

Portoferraio

Also known as Cosmopoli

Portoferraio is the main town and port of the island of Elba, off the coast of Tuscany. Cosimo I de' Medici founded it in 1548 as a fortified port named Cosmopoli, with bastions designed to guard the Tuscan coast against pirates and the Ottomans. Napoleon lived there during his exile on Elba in 1814–1815, before his return to France.

Portoferraio
Image: Carsten Steger · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 profile

Grand Duchy of TuscanyMilitary

Mentioned in 1 state history

Principality of Piombino

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Portoferraio. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/portoferraio
MLA
“Portoferraio.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/portoferraio. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Portoferraio.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/portoferraio.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Portoferraio’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/portoferraio (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻