The island of La Maddalena is located between the north-western coast of Sardinia and Corsica, in the center of the homonymous archipelago.
Populated by about 12,000 inhabitants, it is the largest of seven islands that make up the Archipelago (Caprera, S. Stefano, Spargi, Budelli, Santa Maria and Razzoli).
The first settlements in the archipelago date back to Roman times, from which the main island took its name Ilva.
In the Middle Ages there were some convents belonging to the diocese of Bonifacio.
In more recent times (1767) the Archipelago of La Maddalena was conquered by the Savoys who became Kings of Sardinia following the Treaty of London of 1720 and naval base center of the Kingdom together with Villafranca.
In 1793, following the French Revolution, the La Maddalena Archipelago it was the subject of an attempted occupation by Franco-Corse troops under the command of Colonnelo Cesari and Napoleon Bonaparte, then Captain of Artillery in the French army and lieutenant colonel of the Corsican National Guard, which failed due to the unpreparedness of the soldiers and a attempted mutiny, but also for the ardor of the defenders, among whom Domenico Millelire is remembered.
Throughout the Napoleonic period, La Maddalena was the seat of the small Navy under the command of Admiral Desgeneys and a rest and refueling area for Admiral Nelson’s ships.
Grateful for the help received from the population, Nelson gave the church two candlesticks and a silver crucifix, now kept in the city’s Diocesan Museum.
With the restoration La Maddalena lost its role as sentinel and experienced a long period of stagnation.
In 1849 La Maddalena experienced another important historical period. Giuseppe 
Garibaldi, in fact, arrives in exile for a short time, welcomed by the family of his friend Antonio Susini. He then returned there in 1855 deciding to stop in Caprera where he built his house.
The strategic needs, over the years, led to new transformations of the territory in 1887, when La Maddalena assumed the role of maritime stronghold protected by the imposing defense system of the great fortifications;
At the same time, the recovery of the extraction and processing of granite on an industrial level attracted to La Maddalena a lot of manpower from the rest of the peninsula (the 1895 inhabitants in 1881 became 10,184 in 1911).
During the Second World War, the people of La Maddalena had to flee three times, the last time after the bombing of 10 April 1943 which caused considerable damage.
In the 1970s, the US Navy once again recognized a strategic role for the archipelago, establishing a base for its submarines. In 2008, the US flag was lowered after about 35 years.
