Capoliveri and the Legend of the Lover

 

On Saturday July 14th Capoliveri goes back to 1534 to commemorate the Lover.

A bit of history

In 1534 Elba Island was often invaded and robbed by the pirates of Barbarossa. At that time the young Maria and Lorenzo fell in love at first sight, when they met for the first time at the beach of Capoliveri.

Their relationship was hold back from Lorenzo’s family, since he was a rich gentleman, while Maria was a poor girl. But their was so strong that they used to met every day on that same beach where they felt in love. One day Lorenzo decided to ask her to marry him. It was July 14th.

Lorenzo was waiting for Maria to come and was really excited. Maria was looking at him from top of the hill when she saw some pirates coming to the beach. Lorenzo fought them bravely, but he was took as a prisoner and brought onto the pirates’ boat. Maria was staring still at the terrible scene. Then she noticed that a body was thrown to the sea. She recognized her beloved Lorenzo and ran to the sea and disappeared. Her shawl was found on a rock, that was then renamed “Ciarpa”.

During the 17th century Domingo Cardenas, listened to this tragic and romantic love story and decided to commemorate it. In order to help Maria to find her beloved Lorenzo in the dark sea, Domingo lighted up the beach of Capoliveri with 1000 torches.

The event today

Since then Capoliveri commemorates every year the love of Lorenzo and Maria by lighting the beach again on July 14th. A colorful costume pageant walks around the streets with hundreds torches and then move to the beach where the tragic story took place. The beach is lighted up with a thousand of torches while actors re-enact the love story between Maria and Lorenzo.

After there is boat race of the local contrade, a large buffet and fireworks. The costume pageant starts at 9.30pm and arrives to the beach about 10.15 pm. For more information look at the official website.