Flag Coat of Arms Capital La Punta del Canone Ethnic groups Italian Area 5 km² Government Monarchy | Status Inactive Official languages Sardinian, Italian Demonym Tavolaran Founded 1836 Date dissolved 1962 | |
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Tribute to the kingdom of tavolara and its queen maria pompea
The Kingdom of Tavolara was an imaginary state claiming independence in the 19th and 20th centuries in Tavolara Island, off the northeast coast of Sardinia. Set up by the Bertoleoni family, it claimed to be one of the smallest kingdoms in the world.
Giuseppe Bertoleoni claimed to be its monarch. When he died in the 1840s, his eldest son became "King" Paolo I.
During his reign, in 1861 the Italian government paid 12,000 lire for land at the northeast end of the island to build a lighthouse, which began operating in 1868.
After Paolo's death in 1886, a number of newspapers published the report that according to his will, the island had become a republic. The New York Times described a government with president and council of six elected every six years by a vote of the people, male and female. Others reported on Tavolara's alleged third presidential election in 1896. These reports, however, did not end the Bertoleone "kingdom".
The third "king" of Tavolara was Carlo I, who was succeeded upon his death in 1928 by his son "King" Paolo II. Paolo went abroad, however, and left Carlo's sister Mariangela as regent in his absence. Mariangela died in 1934, leaving the "kingdom" to Italy.
Her nephew Paolo II still claimed the kingdom until his death in 1962, a year that marked the installation of a NATO station on the island.
The present head of the Bertoleoni family is Tonino Bertoleoni, who runs "Da Tonino", a restaurant on the island. Politically, the interests of the micronation are represented in its external dealings by Ernesto Geremia of La Spezia, Italy, who has written a history of the island.
The tomb of Paolo I is in the graveyard on the island, surmounted by a crown.