The island of Santo Stefano, located some 30 miles off the Italian mainland near Naples, was once a thriving prison colony, where the government kept political and criminal prisoners alike. Folk hero Carmine Crocco, anarchist Gaetano Bresci, and future Italian president Sandro Pertini all spent time in the jail, which had been built by the Bourbons in the late 18th-century and used until 1965. Today, while the rest of the island is owned by a private investor, the spooky, deserted prison building remains the property of the Italian government, but—with that government in some financial straits and considering the sale of such burdensome properties—the entire island may soon be private property. That's good news for the investor who owns the rest of the 30-acre island. He or she has been quietly shopping the property around for the ambitious price of $26.2M. That sum is even more unbelievable considering the steep, rocky cliffs surrounding the island and the ensuing difficulty of bringing building materials onto this remote Italian Alcatraz.
· Santo Stefano [Rightmove UK]
Filed under: