Spargi is an island of Italy. It is situated in the Maddalena archipelago, in the

Strait of Bonifacio The Strait of Bonifacio (; ; ; ; ; ; ) is the strait between Corsica and Sardinia, named after the Corsican town Bonifacio. It is wide and divides the Tyrrhenian Sea from the western Mediterranean Sea. The strait is notorious among sailors for i ...

between

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

and

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

. It is the third largest island in the archipelago, and is uninhabited. It is within the

Arcipelago di La Maddalena National Park Arcipelago di La Maddalena National Park is a geomarine national park on the coast of Sardinia. The park was established on 1 April 1994, followed by the change of DPR on 17 May 1996. It covers an area on land and sea of over 12,000 hectares and ...

. The landscape is rugged

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, with some

porphyry Porphyry (; , ''Porphyrios'' "purple-clad") may refer to: Geology * Porphyry (geology), an igneous rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix, often purple, and prestigious Roman sculpture material * Shoksha porphyry, quartzite of purple c ...

. The island is more-or-less circular. The only source of fresh water is rainfall. The coast is marked by coves and sandy beaches. The hinterland is almost impenetrable. Plant life includes ''

Cistus ''Cistus'' (from the Greek ''kistos'') is a genus of flowering plants in the rockrose family Cistaceae, containing about 20 species (Ellul ''et al.'' 2002). They are perennial shrubs found on dry or rocky soils throughout the Mediterranean reg ...

'', strawberry tree,

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

and mastic. During the 19th century, Natale Berretta, an alleged bandit, hid on the island and managed to elude searchers. When his name was cleared, he brought his family over and settled down. The Spargi wreck is a Roman ship dating from , discovered in 1939. It was a cargo vessel, carrying

amphorae An amphora (; ; English ) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land ...

of wine. Finds from it are conserved in the Nino Lamboglia Museum in

La Maddelena La Maddalena (Gallurese language, Gallurese: ''Madalena'' or ''La Madalena'', ) is a town and ''comune'' located on the islands of the Maddalena archipelago in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia, Italy. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'I ...

. Spargi was garrisoned during both World Wars. Some of the fortifications still remain. The ownership of Spargi was the subject of a lightly-contested court case in 2011. The parties agreed that it was worth €127,000. The nearby islet of Spargiotto to the west is a breeding site for birds such as

shag Shag or Shags may refer to: Animals * Shag or cormorant, a bird family ** European shag, a specific species of the shag or cormorant family ** Great cormorant another species of the family Persons * Shag (artist), stage name of the American a ...

Audouin's gull Audouin's gull (''Ichthyaetus audouinii'') is a large gull restricted to the Mediterranean and the western coast of Saharan Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''ikhthus'', "fish", and ''aetos'', "eagle", and t ...

and

storm petrel Storm petrel or stormy petrel may refer to one of two bird family (biology), families, both in the order Procellariiformes, once treated as the same family. The two families are: * Northern storm petrels (''Hydrobatidae'') are found in the No ...

. Secca di Spargi ('Spargi shoal'; also called Secca Washington) is a recommended and marked-out area for diving. It consists of large blocks of granite together with boulders and landslips, and includes

tafoni Tafoni (singular: tafone) are cavities that develop in granular rock. Although there are various definitions in the scientific literature, tafoni are commonly defined as small (less than ) to large (greater than ) cavity features that develop in ...

and depressions. It ranges in depth from to . Fish include

grouper Groupers are a diverse group of marine ray-finned fish in the family Epinephelidae, in the order Perciformes. Groupers were long considered a subfamily of the seabasses in Serranidae, but are now treated as distinct. Not all members of this f ...

, meagre,

sea bream Sparidae is a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Spariformes, the seabreams and porgies, although they were traditionally classified in the order Perciformes. The over 150 species are found in shallow and deep marine waters in te ...

and

barracuda A barracuda is a large, predatory, ray-finned, saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. It is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldw ...

. The sunlit areas support seaweed; the shady areas are populated by the sponge ''

Aplysina cavernicola ''Aplysina cavernicola'' is a species of sponge in the family Aplysinidae. It is native to the Mediterranean Sea where it grows in caves and under overhangs. Description ''Aplysina cavernicola'' forms clumps that may be up to across. It has a ...

'' (genus ''

Aplysina ''Aplysina'' is a genus of sea sponges in the order Verongiida. It was first authenticated and described by Giovanni Domenico Nardo in 1834. Species The following species are recognised in the genus ''Aplysina'': References

Spong ...

'') and red gorgonians.

Gallery

These are some views of Spargi: File:Isola di Spargi 3.JPG File:Isola Spargi.JPG File:La Maddalena - Isola di Spargi (01).JPG File:La Maddalena - Isola di Spargi (07).JPG File:La Maddalena - Isola di Spargi (11).jpg

References

Islands of Sardinia Uninhabited islands of Italy {{Sardinia-geo-stub

Gallery

See also

References