Tremiti Islands · Italy · Artificial reef
Statua di Padre Pio
A saint on the seabed since 1998, 14 m down off Capraia
Area photo: eric spenle · CC BY-SA 4.0
A statue of Padre Pio, a saint with a strong local following, stands submerged at about 14 metres in the sea off Capraia, the smallest of the Tremiti islands. It has been down there since 1998 and is described as the largest Padre Pio anywhere. The dive is a single object on the seabed rather than a route, and it is shallow enough to spend a long time beside it.
Where it is and how deep
42.1293° N, 15.5119° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Everything on this dive happens around one object. The statue sits at about 14 metres on the seabed between Capraia and San Nicola, close in against Capraia itself, so the descent is short and puts you straight beside it. There is no route to follow and no wall to work along: the dive is spent circling the figure, deciding where the light falls on it and how much of the surrounding ground you want in the frame.
The depth is the useful part. Fourteen metres leaves plenty of no-decompression time to work the same subject over and over, so the dive is about patience with light and angle rather than covering ground. Where exactly the boat drops you is worth settling in the briefing: the position shown on this page is derived from published descriptions placing the statue in the sea off Capraia, between that island and San Nicola, rather than from a surveyed mark for the site itself.
Background
The statue was submerged in 1998 in the sea off Capraia and is described as the largest Padre Pio in the world. It was made by the Foggia sculptor Domenico Norcia. Published accounts of its size differ: the Italian Wikipedia entry for Capraia gives about three metres, while Wikivoyage's description of the archipelago calls it four.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-season | Off-season | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Off-season |
Season follows Tremiti Islands: Operators run Apr–Oct with Jun–Sep warmest; winter bora and Adriatic swell close the ferry and the dive centres.
Dive videos
Isole Tremiti - discesa in apnea sulla statua di Padre Pio. · Marco Marone on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is the underwater Padre Pio statue?+
It sits at about 14 metres, in the sea off Capraia in the Tremiti archipelago, where it has stood since 1998. That depth leaves a long no-decompression time, and the statue is the whole of the dive rather than one stop on a longer route.
Sources
- Isola di Capraia (Tremiti) — Wikipedia
- Tremiti Islands — Wikivoyage
- OpenStreetMap: Isola di Capraia — OpenStreetMap
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