Ponza
Ponza and the Island of Zannone
The Island of Zannone is the portion of Ponza Municipality that belongs to Circeo National Park.
Zannone was incorporated into Circeo National Park in 1979, thus becoming its insular appendage. This helped to preserve its lush vegetation, rich in evergreen oaks, which is home to many bird species as well as to a colony of mouflons.
The Island of Zannone has been inhabited since prehistory. During the 13th century, Benedictine and then Cistercian monks settled at Convento di Santo Spirito (whose ruins are still visible), but they later left it because of continual pirate incursions.
Unlike the other islands in the Archipelago, jagged and barren, Zannone is evenly shaped, compact, and has a lush and well preserved Mediterranean vegetation.
The old monastery in Zannone
(photo by Marco Buonocore)