Page 546 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

A Cupulatta park, with over
170 species of tortoises and
turtles (open April to October).
Musée National de la
Maison Bonaparte
"= ⌂ Rue St-Charles
# Hours vary, check website
∑ musees-nationaux-
EXPERIENCE Corsica Musée des Beaux-Arts
malmaison.fr

"= ⌂ 50–52 rue Cardinal
Fesch # Hours vary,
check website ∑ musee-
fesch.com.

10 " - =
Filitosa
! A7 ⌂ Station
Préhistorique de Filitosa,
Sollacaro, Corse-du-Sud
# Apr–Oct: 9am–sunset
daily ∑ filitosa.fr
The 4,000­year­old, life­size
stone warriors of Filitosa are
Marble statue of a toga- and laurel-wreath-clad the most spectacular relics of
Napoléon Bonaparte, on place Foch in Ajaccio megalithic man in Corsica.
Discovered in 1946, these
phallus­like granite menhirs
9 by Napoléon’s unscrupulous represent an interesting pro­
gression from mere outlines
uncle, Cardinal Fesch, who
Ajaccio merrily looted churches, pal­ to detailed sculpture etched
aces and museums during the with human features.
! A7 ⌂ Corse-du-Sud
k £ @ g n 3 boulevard du Italian campaign and brought The five most recent figures
Roi Jérôme; www.ajaccio- the swag home to Ajaccio. (about 1500 BC) stand around
tourisme.com Housed in the 19th­century a 1,000­year­old olive tree, in
Palais Fesch, the Musée des the field below a tumulus.
A noisy, busy town by Corsican Beaux-Arts has the finest Other finds can be seen in the
standards, this was the birth ­ collection of Italian primitive site’s museum.
place of Napoléon Bona parte art in France after the Louvre.
in 1769. After crowning himself Among its masterpieces are
emperor of France in 1804, he works by Bellini, Botticelli, 11
never returned to Corsica, but Titian, Veronese, Bernini and
the town, the modern capital Poussin. Next to the Palais Sartène
of nationalist Corsica, cele­ Fesch stands the Chapelle
brates his 15 August birthday. Impériale, built in 1855 by ! A7 ⌂ Corse-du-Sud @
n 14 cours Soeur Amélie;
The 16th­century Cathédrale Napoléon III to accommodate www. lacoursedes
Notre­Dame de la Miséricorde, the tombs of the Bonapartes. origines.com
where Napoléon was baptized From here, walk back along
in 1771, houses Delacroix’s the quay to the Jetée de la A medieval fortified town of
painting Vierge du Sacré-Coeur. Citadelle, which offers superb narrow cobbled streets and
A few streets away the views of the town, marina and granite houses rising above
Musée National de la Maison Golfe d’Ajaccio. From the quai the Rizzanese Val ley, Sartène
Bonaparte, where Napoléon de la Citadelle, daily excursions
was born and spent his child­ go to the Îles Sanguinaires
hood, has memorabilia, family found at the mouth of the
portraits and period furniture. Golfe d’Ajaccio. One of many charming
Much more extraordinary is At Vero, 21 km (13 miles) narrow alleys in the
the art collection assembled northeast on the N193, is the medieval town of Sartène
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