Linguella Fortress

The Linguella Archaeological Museum is housed in the former Salt Warehouses in the Linguella Fortress. The construction of this defensive structure began in 1548 by Giovanni Camerini, upon the orders of Cosimo de Medici, and it forms part of the system of fortifications which protected Portoferraio. Inside, overlooking the sea, stands the Torre della Linguella, or Torre del Martello, a jewel of Medici military architecture which was previously connected by a heavy chain to the Torre del Gallo, on the opposite side of the dock. Excavations carried out by the Tuscan Archaeological Superintendency in 1979, in 1990-1991 and in 2020, have uncovered the remains of a large Roman residential complex below the Medici Fortress. The remains, belonging to a thermal complex of a rich maritime villa are decorated with precious marbles and plasters and there is evidence of  four renovation phases dating from the middle of the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 3rd century AD.