Corsica and Napoleon Bonaparte

What did I know about Corsica, beyond its heritage as the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte? In truth, very little. I know a bit more now. Its history is a history of southern Europe. First colonized by the Greeks (glossing over the prehistoric peoples that undoubtedly proceeded them), over the last 2500 years Corsica has been occupied by, invaded by, raided by, and ruled by the Greeks, Etruscans, Carthaginians, the Greeks again (this time from Sicily), the Romans, the Vandals, the Goths, the Byzantines, the Lombards, the Moors, the Pisans, the Luccans, the Aragonites, the Genoese, and finally the French, ignoring the incursion of the Fascist Italians and then the Germans during WW2. Corsica even had a short-lived republic from 1755 to 1769, a year notable both as the year France took possession of the island and the year Napoleon was born. One result is that the Corsicans retain a certain antipathy to foreign domination. The sometimes violent independence movement is quiet now but not gone.

Corsica is now a major tourist destination and retirement destination. About 5,000 additional pensioners each year retire to Corsica from France, increasing its population to 355,000 from little more than half that only a few decades ago.

Still, it is its heritage as the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte that makes Corsica famous and which the island embraces. The “Little Corsican” was the focus of much of our tour. (Actually, he was of average height for his time.) Our tour guide was a German-born Corsican who once despised Napoleon for his excesses but now has a more nuanced view.

Left: Corsica is a mountainous island with peaks over 6000 feet and numerous valleys. Many are snow-capped in the winter. Right: This monument to Napoleon Bonaparte is the largest of many in and near Ajaccio. Listed at the foot of the memorial are his military victories as well as several of his reforms, such as the Napoleonic Civil Code, still the basis of much of Europe’s and Latin America’s legal system (and Louisiana’s too).

We enjoyed just a touch of Corsica’s natural environment. We were at this stop long enough to enjoy but a short stroll along the several nature trails.

The Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta in Ajaccio is where Napoleon was baptized—the second time. Reputedly, as an at-risk sickly baby, he was first baptized in a private rite at home before his public baptism in the cathedral.

Left: The altar of the cathedral was dismantled and removed from a church in Lucca and sent to Ajaccio under the orders of Napoleon’s sister Elisa. Right: The cathedral’s baptismal font, used in Napoleon’s baptism.

An alley in Ajaccio and graffiti on a wall. IFF was/is a Corsican freedom fighting/terrorist organization and Yvan an IFF assassin who killed a local official and was himself killed by a fellow prisoner while in prison. Naturally, IFF conspiracy theorists blame the murder on the French.

Left: The Maison Bonaparte is Napoleon’s birthplace and now a museum. When the French conquered Corsica in 1769 (this took many bloody years to accomplish), the Bonapartes were fearful for their future. As part of the campaign to gain the loyalty of some of the more prominent Corsicans, seventy of these families were given French royalty status, including the Bonapartes. Right: Poor Napoleon II, “King of Rome”. The only legitimate son of Napoleon I and, at age 4, the unrecognized successor as emperor after his father’s abdication, he spent the rest of his short life under tight control in Vienna. He died of untreated pneumonia at age 21.

Left: Bonaparte in Roman senatorial garb. Right: A plaque showing France’s Legion of Honor, established by Napolean and awarded to 48,000 of his soldiers. It came with a pension, at least for those who survived his wars.

Left: A street in Ajaccio. Right: A memorial to Pascal Paoli, a Corsican statesman during Corsica’s brief period as a republic. (He was then exiled by the French.) He introduced elections of officials in which each eligible household had two votes in each election, implicitly including women in the vote.

Downtown scenes. (I’m running out of gas on this posting. 😊)

After our return to the ship, for dinner we dined in one of the specialty restaurants, in this case Manfredi’s, appropriately (for the moment) featuring Italian cuisine. Our course choices were excellent and the wine acceptable. Unless one purchases a “wine and beverage” package, “free” alcohol is limited to meals. The non-premium wine is mediocre, but we make do. The pours are not stingy.

Our next port? Civitavecchia, Rome’s port. As much as we would have enjoyed returning to Rome for the day (a ninety minute bus ride away), we chose instead to tour the ancient Roman port of Ostia.