Republic of Rose Island

Republic of Rose Island Respubliko de la Insulo de la Rozoj Repubblica dell'Isola delle Rose Micronation
Flag Coat of Arms
Status		Defunct (area taken by Italy)
Location		Adriatic Sea between Cesenatico and Rimini, Italy
Official languages		Esperanto
Organizational structure		Republic
•	President	Giorgio Rosa
Establishment
•	Declared	24 June 1968 (1968-06-24)
Area claimed
•	Total	0.0004 km2 0 sq mi
Purported currency		milo (used in stamps; no coins or notes are known to have been printed)

The Republic of Rose Island (Esperanto: Respubliko de la Insulo de la Rozoj) was a short-lived micronation on a man-made platform in the Adriatic Sea, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) off the coast of the province of Rimini, Italy.

In 1967, Italian engineer Giorgio Rosa funded the construction of a 400-square-metre (4,300 sq ft) platform supported by nine pylons, and furnished it with a number of commercial establishments, including a restaurant, bar, nightclub, souvenir shop and a post office. Some reports also mention the presence of a radio station, but this remains unconfirmed.

The platform declared independence on 24 June 1968, under the Esperanto name "Insulo de la Rozoj", with Rosa as self-declared President. Both Esperanto rozo (plural rozoj) and Italian rosa (plural rose) mean "rose". Soon afterwards Rose Island issued a number of stamps, including a stamp showing the approximate location of Rose Island in the Adriatic Sea. The purported currency of the republic was the "Mill" and this appeared on the early stamp issues, although no coins or banknotes are known to have been produced. This denomination was translated into Esperanto as "Miloj" on later stamp issues (it is unrelated to the Esperantist currency spesmilo).

Rosa's actions were viewed by the Italian government as a ploy to raise money from tourists while avoiding national taxation. Whether or not this was the real reason behind Rosa's micronation, the Italian government's response was swift: a group of four carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza officers landed on the "Isola delle Rose" and assumed control. The platform's Council of Government is said to have sent a telegram, presumably to the Italian government, to protest the "violation of its sovereignty and the injury inflicted on local tourism by the military occupation", but this was ignored.

On 13 February 1969,^[1] the Italian Navy used explosives to destroy the facility, an act later portrayed on postage stamps issued by Rosa's self-declared Government in exile.

See also

• Sealand – a declared principality near the United Kingdom which is built on a World War II sea fort.
• Republic of Minerva – a short-lived artificial island micronation in the Pacific Ocean.
• REM Island, a platform towed into international waters for the purposes of offshore radio broadcasting.
• Moresnet

References

Further reading

• Vaccarezza, Fabio (January 2007). "Rose Island: A Dream of Freedom". The Cinderella Philatelist: 42–46. ISSN 0009-6911. 
• Strauss, Erwin S. (1984). How to Start Your Own Country (2nd ed.). Port Townsend, WA: Breakout Productions. pp. 129–130. ISBN 1-893626-15-6. 
• Menefee, Samuel Pyeatt (Fall 1994). "'Republics of the Reefs': Nation-Building on the Continental Shelf and in the World's Oceans". California Western International Law Journal. 25 (1): 105–06. ISSN 0886-3210. 

External links

• "Republic of Rose Island" (in English and Italian). 
• Italian language website discussing the history of Rose Island and its postage stamps. Includes a scan of part of a contemporary newspaper article.
• Bijoux, Thérèse (24 January 2007). "L'Insulo de Rozoj...storia di una fiaba di costume fine anni 60" (in Italian). (including pictures of its destruction) and comments from the daughter of one of the people responsible for the destruction (Italian language)