Place and dates

The conference will take place in the De Laugier cultural center in Portoferraio, Elba Island, Tuscany, Italy. Elba is the biggest island (223 km²) of the Tuscan Archipelago, and home to the largest marine park in Europe. It is worldwide known for its crystal clear water, granite rocks and for harboring Napoleon during his exile.

The building still bears the name of the Napoleonic Official Cesare De Laugier, of Elba origin. The cultural and congress center is located in a large square with a wonderful view of the rooftops of Portoferraio. On the ground floor there is a Renaissance portico that leads to a patio with a well.

The De Laugier Cultural and Convention Center is a historic complex in Portoferraio accessible by Salita Napoleone (which also leads to Palazzina dei Mulini, residence of Napoleone Bonaparte). The nearby square is the evocative and spectacular Piazza d'Arme of the old Caserma De Laugier.

The ground floor of the Convention Center, which exhibits a Reinassance arcade facing a patio where a well is located, hosts Sala San Salvatore (typically used for exhibition events) and the invaluable Historical Archive. On the first floor we have the auditorium (which can accommodate up to 270 seats), other spaces reserved for congress activities and the Foresiana Art Gallery. The Foresiana Library lies at the top floor.

Around the mid-sixteenth century, Cosimo I de' Medici, who founded the city of Cosmopoli (now called Portoferraio), commissioned Giorgio Vasari to build the headquarter of the Holy Military Order of St. Stephen Pope and Martyr. Vasari kicked off the designing phase, but the death of Cosimo prevented the project from completion, so the Holy Military Order of St. Stephen Pope and Martyr, founded in Portoferraio, got transferred to Pisa. The site saw then the edification of the Conventual complex (the construction of which started in 1562), eventually assigned to the Franciscan friars.

During Napoleon's exile at Isola D'Elba (1814-1815), the convent was converted into a barrack, afterward named after Cesare De Laugier, a Napoleonic officer of Elban origin, hero of the Curtatone and Montanara battle during the First Italian War of Independence (1848-1849).

Download map ground floor
Download map first floor