Napoleon's hometown

Ajaccio (week 35)

If the number of statues and historic markers is any indication, the greatest export from Ajaccio is Napoleon.  The Bonapartes were one of the original families to come over and live in Genoese Ajaccio soon after its founding in 1492.  By the time Napoleon was born, the family was living in town at the Maison Bonaparte, owned by the family up to 1923 and now a museum.  Many of the artifacts in the museum are from various siblings, but the main attraction for us was the painstaking recreation of the room decor - from the wallpaper to the ceiling art to the card tables.  Of course, you can see the room where legend has it that Napoleon was born (on a couch in a sitting room because Mom went into labour at church and didn't make it to the bedroom in time), and also a bedroom he stayed in during one of his adult visits.

Other Napoleonic sites we saw were the Grotte Napoleon (where he supposedly played and "sat looking out at the harbour and dreaming of glory" as a child), his enormous monument at the Place d'Austerlitz (known locally as the Casone - one wonders what Napoleon would have thought of the local teens playing pétanque on his parade ground), Place Foch (where a statue presides over the local market), and the Place de Gaulle, apparently one of the largest city squares in Europe (featuring the statue Napoléon et ses frères).  We also tried to see the Salon Napoléonien in the Hôtel de ville, but ended up walking into a conference presentation being held in the room.  Finally, we drove out to the Arboretum des Milelli, the country estate of the Bonapartes, located in an extensive olive grove; Napoleon stayed here with Murat and some other generals on his way back to Paris after abandoning his army in Egypt.  The house itself is closed, but the grove is open and is a pleasant walk with some nice views over the city.  There is also a formal botanical garden with little green labels giving the plants' scientific names.

The last Bonaparte site we visited was the Musée Fesch, named after Cardinal the Prince Joseph Fesch, Napoleon's uncle.  He built a palace and an Imperial Chapel, where many of Napoleon's immediate family are buried; naturally it is closed for the winter, like every other religious building on Corsica.  Cardinal Fesch was an avid and knowledgeable art collector - much of his collection is still on display here, including a Boticelli and two Titians.  Unfortunately, many of the most famous works that were once part of his collection (from Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and others) are now dispersed throughout Europe's larger museums.