La Maddalena Archipelago National Park

The La Maddalena Archipelago is located in the north-east of Sardinia near the Bocche di Bonifacio. It consists of a multitude of islands, islets and rocks, and is dotted with bays and white sandy beaches. These granite outcrops are surrounded by an enchanting sea, what the whole world knows as the wonderful sea of Sardinia.

Established in l994, it is a geo-marine park created with the intention of implementing significant interventions in the protection, preservation and enhancement of the coastal and maritime territory. Its surface area is made up of land and sea and covers approximately 19,000 hectares with over 180 km of coastline. It is divided into zones with different levels of protection, see the Park zoning

The National Park and its islands are characterised by the typical vegetation of the Mediterranean coastal strip, strongly influenced by the presence of wind, scarcity of water, aridity of substrates and strong sunlight: the macchia. The main exponents represented in the park are juniper, strawberry tree, mastic tree, myrtle, cistus and euphorbia.

The terrestrial fauna is characterised by the presence of numerous amphibians, reptiles and small to medium mammals. The avifauna includes many bird species, typical of the central-western Mediterranean islands, both breeding and migratory. Worth mentioning are the Corsican seagull, the herring gull, the storm bird, the tufted plover, the cormorant, the tern, the greater and the lesser shearwater.

Among the marine fauna, mention must certainly be made of the Pinna nobilis (a bivalve shell that can reach up to a metre in height), the brown grouper, the corvina and the seabream. Along with the large cartilaginous fish, large marine mammals, such as dolphins and minke whales, often peep into the waters of the park.