Wanted in 1562 by Cosimo I de ‘Medici, the former S. Salvatore convent was destined to be the seat of the Order of the Knights of Santo Stefano founded in Portoferraio a year earlier. With the transfer of the Order to Pisa, the convent was entrusted to the Franciscans and, with the Grand Ducal suppression and the French occupation, it was subsequently transformed into a barracks. Today the Cultural and Congress Center, the building maintains the dedication to the Napoleonic officer of Elban origin Cesare De Laugier, hero of Curtatone and Montanara. You enter from a square square that offers a splendid view over the roofs of Portoferraio and the Medici dock. On the ground floor there is a Renaissance portico that opens onto a patio with a well. The interior rooms, used as cisterns, are today locations for exhibitions, events and congresses and for the “Nello Santi” cinema. In the rooms of the Cultural Center there are also the conference hall, the Library and the Pinacoteca Foresiana, where the most precious testimonies of the history and culture of the island are kept.
