Asinara Park
Edited by:
Massimo Martini
Access
The Asinara National Park can only be reached by sea: the island has neither an airport nor a road connection to the mainland. The main ports of embarkation are Porto Torres and Stintino, which is about 3 km from the island. From Stintino, boats dock at the Fornelli pier, the southern entrance to the park; from Porto Torres they reach Cala Reale, a landing place in the central-northern sector. To reach the ports of embarkation by car, from Sassari take the state road of the Nurra in the direction of Porto Torres; for Stintino, continue by turning onto the provincial road from Porto Torres towards the north-west, for a total of around 26 km from Sassari. Information and operating kiosks for purchasing boarding tickets are available both in Porto Torres and Stintino. During the summer period, additional maritime connections are available from the ports of Castelsardo and Santa Teresa Gallura. The reference airport is the Riviera del Corallo airport in Alghero, about 50 km from Porto Torres, which can be reached by the state road . Access to the island is regulated: visiting with authorised tour operators is recommended and for some areas in Zone A is compulsory. The means of transport available on the island are off-road vehicles, bicycles, horse riding and walking along the network of paths. The Park Authority office is located in Porto Torres, Via Iosto 7.
.Introduction
The Asinara National Park extends over the island of the same name in north-western Sardinia, in the Gulf of Asinara, in the municipality of Porto Torres in the province of Sassari. The provisional perimeter of the park was issued on 28 November 1997, at the same time as the closure of the maximum security prison that had occupied the island since 1975; the official establishment of the National Park and the Park Authority took place with the Decree of the President of the Republic of 3 October 2002, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on 20 December 2002. The same date saw the establishment of the Area Marina Protetta Isola dell'Asinara, which protects around 107.32 kmĀ² of the surrounding sea. The park occupies the entire island with an area of around 51.92 kmĀ², with a coastal perimeter of over 110 km. The island is narrow and elongated - around 17.5km long by a maximum of 6.5km wide - and retains a largely intact nature thanks to the enforced isolation maintained for over a century by the prison regime. The park's symbol is the white donkey (Equus asinus var. albina), a breed of depigmented donkey endemic to the island.
Description
The shape of the island is narrow and elongated, traversed by a concrete road some 25 km long that forms its main north-south axis. The geological structure is heterogeneous: Palaeozoic metamorphic rocks dominate the northern and southern sectors, granites the central portion, with local variations resulting in profoundly different coastal morphologies on the two sides. The west coast is predominantly rocky, with cliffs reaching up to 200 m in height, exposed to the mistral and sea beds that drop sharply to 50 m bathymetric depth; the east coast, facing the Gulf of Asinara, is shallower, with sandy beaches, dune ecosystems and coastal ponds. The island's highest elevation is Punta della Scomunica at 408m. The area is criss-crossed by paths traced as far back as the 17th century, which are now organised by the park authority into thematic itineraries that touch on the main sites of natural and historical interest.
The plant landscape bears the signs of a long and intense anthropic pressure: deforestation for charcoal and timber, goat grazing introduced during the prison era and fires have reduced the original forest cover to a single remnant of holm oak (Quercus ilex) in the Elighe Mannu locality, in the northern sector on metamorphic rocks between 150 and 200 m above sea level, now the subject of protection measures. Mediterranean scrub is the predominant vegetation formation, dominated, depending on local conditions, by mastic trees (Pistacia lentiscus), Phoenician juniper (Juniperus phoenicea), arborescent spurge (Euphorbia dendroides), arbutus and cistus. In the windiest areas, garrigue with red cistus and marine cistus develops. The rocky coasts are home to halophilous vegetation with sea fennel (Crithmum maritimum), limonium acutifolium (Limonium acutifolium) and formations of Centaurea horrida, an endemic species of north-western Sardinia of high conservation interest. The sandy coasts are dominated by beach couch grass (Agropyron junceum), stinging sparto (Ammophila arenaria) and sea lily (Pancratium maritimum). Important endemisms include Nananthaea perpusilla and Filago tyrrhenica, found in the herbaceous communities of coastal areas, as well as Corsican broom, Terracciano astragalus and spiny cornflower (Centaurea horrida).
The land fauna is characterised by the colony of white donkeys, whose presence on the island has been attested for centuries. The albino variety (Equus asinus var. albina) has a white coat, pink skin and partial pigmentation of the iris - perceived to be pinkish blue - and suffers from marked photophobia; adult donkeys reach about one metre at the withers. The mouflon (Ovis aries musimon), wild boar and horse complete the picture of large mammals. The avifauna includes the Corsican gull (Ichthyaetus audouinii), peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) and the tufted marangon (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) as nesting birds; the island is also an important stopping point for the spring and autumn migrations of numerous species. Since 2004, the Turtle Hospital, a recovery centre for injured or accidentally captured sea turtles (Caretta caretta) has been operating at Fornelli; the Park Fauna Observatory operates at Tumbarino. The Marine Protected Area protects the seabed of high biological integrity, with prairies of Posidonia oceanica, coral communities and a rich ichthyofauna.
The history of the island begins with the first human traces dating back to prehistoric times, documented by the domus de janas necropolis of Campu Perdu. In the Middle Ages, the Camaldolese monastery was built at Sant'Andrea and the Castellaccio at Punta Maestra Fornelli, later joined by the towers of Trabuccato, Cala d'Oliva and Cala Arena. Between the 17th and the end of the 19th century, the island was inhabited by a community of shepherds and fishermen, until 1885, when the resident population was removed to make way for the Kingdom of Italy's Primary Lazaretto - a quarantine health station - and the Colonia Penale Agricola. During World War I, the island hosted a prison camp: some 24,000 Austro-Hungarian prisoners died on the island, dying of typhus epidemics, whose remains are collected in the ossuary inaugurated in 1938. From 1975, Asinara became a maximum-security prison, a place of detention for terrorists, kidnappers and organised crime bosses; magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino also stayed there during the Palermo Maxiprocess. The prison was closed on 31 December 1997, and from that date the island was returned to nature. This long isolation, paradoxically, has contributed greatly to the preservation of the island's ecosystem. The village of Cala d'Oliva - with its low, white houses on narrow stone streets, once inhabited by the founding families of Stintino and later by prison guards - now houses the park's Environmental Education Centre; the Cala Reale Visitors' Centre houses the permanent exhibition "Storie d'Asinara".
Visits to the park mainly take place along the network of paths and the main driveway: thematic trails include the "donkey trail" the "holm oak trail" which reaches the grove of Elighe Mannu, the "lighthouse trail" as far as Punta Scorno, and the "memory trail" which retraces the island's main historical stages. The park has limited accommodation facilities: the hostel-restaurant in Cala d'Oliva, the Locanda del Parco and the "L'Asino Bianco" restaurant in Cala Reale. Equestrian activities are available at Campu Perdu, a former penal branch with an agricultural vocation. Use is possible all year round, with restricted access and preferably organised through authorised operators.
Information
General data
Typology: National Park; Marine Protected Area (D.M. 13 August 2002)
Year of institution: 1997 (provisional perimeter D.P.R. 28 November 1997); National Park and Park Authority: D.P.R. 3 October 2002 (G.U. n. 298 of 20 December 2002); Marine Protected Area: D.M. 13 August 2002
Managing body: Ente Parco Nazionale dell'Asinara
Reference body: Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica
Territorial area: 51,92 kmĀ²
Marine Protected Area area: 107.32 kmĀ²
Coastal development: over 110km
Minimum altitude: 0m (sea level)
Maximum altitude: 408m - Punta della Scomunica
Region(s): Sardinia
Province(s): Sassari
Municipality(ies) concerned: Porto Torres
Official website: https://www.parcoasinara.org