Patron saint festival In 197 days
Feast of Saint Christinus
📅 Every year, on 29 April
On 29 April Portoferraio celebrates Saint Christinus, whose relics are kept in the church that bears his name, the church of the Misericordia.
Cosimo de' Medici founded it in 1548 as Cosmopoli, an ideal stronghold whose star bastions survive intact; three centuries later Napoleon landed as an exiled emperor and for ten months — May 1814 to February 1815 — ruled Elba from the villas of the Mulini and San Martino, now national museums with relics and library.
The nineteenth-century harbour receives the ferries in a theatre of pastel houses; the white beaches of Sansone and Capo Bianco are minutes away. The island's hardworking capital, Portoferraio is the key to any Elban holiday — and a town deserving more than a transit.
The Portoferraio guide
What to eat here 1
Bistecca alla Fiorentina
Where to stay 24
24 places to stay · top rated: Hotel Villa Ottone 9.3 · Hotel Brigantino 9.2
Events & festivals 1
Next up: Feast of Saint Christinus, Thursday 29 April
Getting there
Nearest airport: Pisa Galilei, 97 km away
Portoferraio is part of 🏝️ Islands 🏖️ Seaside
Tours, tickets and experiences
Bookable on GetYourGuideExperiences in Portoferraio
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Portoferraio 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Portoferraio
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Portoferraio, but an easy day trip away.
chiesa dei Santi Gervasio e Protasio 📍 Belluno · 12 km A thirteenth-century church in Belluno divided in two by a wall, between the faithful and the enclosed nuns. basilica cattedrale di San Martino 📍 Belluno · 14 km Belluno's cathedral, rebuilt by Tullio Lombardo in the sixteenth century, with Juvarra's bell tower. chiesa di San Rocco 📍 Belluno · 14 km Belluno's votive church, born of the plague of 1530, in Castellavazzo stone, with a canvas by Gaspare Diziani. chiesa di Santo Stefano 📍 Belluno · 14 km The Servites' Gothic church in Belluno, in white and red stone, with Brustolon's angels and a 24-hour clock. chiesa di Sant'Aronne 📍 Belluno · 16 km The parish church of Cusighe, in Belluno, with an altarpiece by Girolamo Denti and a Last Supper by Paris Bordon. chiesa di San Liberale 📍 Belluno · 16 km A very old little church on the hill of Pedeserva, in Belluno, with a stone-slab roof and a crypt.