Ispra

Ispra
Comune
Comune di Ispra
Lake Maggiore seen from Ispra.
Coat of arms
Ispra Location of Ispra in Italy
Coordinates: 45°48′50″N 08°36′43″E / 45.81389°N 8.61194°E / 45.81389; 8.61194
Country	Italy
Region	Lombardy
Province / Metropolitan city	Varese (VA)
Frazioni	Barza, Cascine, Quassa
Government
• Mayor	Melissa De Santis
Area
• Total	15 km2 (6 sq mi)
Elevation	220 m (720 ft)
Population (31 January 2009)
• Total	5,086
• Density	340/km2 (880/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Ispresi
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	21027
Dialing code	0332
Patron saint	St. Martin of Tours
Saint day	11 November
Website	Official website

Ispra is a comune and small town on the eastern coast of Lake Maggiore, in the province of Varese (Lombardy, northern Italy).

Attested by the name Ispira (712), Ispira (XIV). Appears as Ispratium in Aegidius Tschudi's Beschreibung Galliae Comatae. According to Gaudenzio Merula the origin of the name could lie onto the rocky nature of this landscape; Hisprum quasi asperum ob saxorum difficultates, that is to say equivalent to the Latin (cf. and ) and related to the Provençal ispre with the "d" shifting to an "r" due to rhotacism.

Some of the main Institutes of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC) are located there, including the Institute for the Protection and the Security of the Citizen (IPSC), the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) and the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP), as well as the Ispra site Directorate (IS).

Locally, the research establishment is referred to as the CCR (Centro Comune di Ricerca) or as EURATOM - based on its history in nuclear research. The site covers an area of 157 hectares (390 acres), where the original presence of pines, birches, oaks and chestnut trees has partially been preserved.

The site still contains a number of experimental nuclear reactors in the process of being decommissioned.