Page 533 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

Bonifacio illuminated on the cliff edge at night

CORSICA

Evidence shows that the craggy, wild shores and
limestone cliffs of Corsica have sheltered seafaring
inhabitants since 6570 BC. The Phocaeans wrote
of the mountainous island in about 560 BC, when
they founded the town of Alalia, and in the 8th
century BC, Bonifacio was immortalized in Homer’s
Odyssey. Invasions between 450 and 1050 AD
forced the island’s inhabitants to abandon their
coastal settlements, including Aléria and Calvi, and
flee inland. Tenuous stability came with Pisan
colonizers, who spent the next 200 years crafting
beautifully proportioned Romanesque churches
in towns such as St-Florent. The Corsican people
enjoyed 14 years of independence under elected
president Pasquale Paoli, who founded a university
in Corte and printing press, before the island was
sold in 1769 to Louis XV by the Genoese for 40 mil-
lion francs. The ensuing discontent may have
inspired Ajaccio-born Napoléon Bonaparte to
declare himself Emperor of France in 1804, but his
government neglected his homeland. During the
19th century, poverty on the island sent Corsicans
in their thousands into the French colonies. Known
as USS Corsica during World War II, thanks to the
number of American military bases, Corsica has
since developed a thriving tourism industry,
drawing visitors and immigrants to its shores.
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