Napoleon’s Corsica cherished homeland

MANILA, Philippines – I was willing to bet my weekly elementary school allowance that the island of Corsica belonged to Italy, for I was so certain – all because it sounded Italian and nothing else. But I soon learned from my dad that this quaint isle was actually a French colony; luckily there were no takers for my wager.

Back then in the pre-Internet era, there was little information available, so I would read anything I could get my hands on about Corsica. From the Encyclopedia Britannica to newspaper clippings, I poured over these bits and pieces of data – and promised myself that one day, I would visit this place.

And this year I finally did.

Corsica, covering approximately 8,700 square kilometers, is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, north of Sardinia, west of the Italian Peninsula and southeast of France, its mainland. It is one of the 18 regions of L’Hexagone – the unofficial nickname of the country.

From the port where the Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas docked, we had a slow drive along the mountainous roadside and stopped by the quaint chapel on the coast, with inscriptions commemorating the French and Algerians who died and were buried in their homeland.

We headed to the capital Ajaccio, a local commune and the largest settlement which is the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. Our next stop was the Maison Bonaparte, the ancestral home of the illustrious family from 1682 until 1923. The simple façade is deceiving, for the interior holds a much more alluring story.

The revolutionary’s great-great-grandfather first moved in, in the 1700s, and this is where most of the descendants were born. In 1852, under the patroness of Empress Eugenie, the place was renovated and refurbished to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Napoleon’s birth. It has been declared a national museum since 1967.

On the second floor, one may read a history of the isles, and features his parents, Carlo Bonaparte, a lawyer and a statesman, and Letizia Ramolino, from a family of military background. Their marriage was thought to be for convenience – for power and wealth combined.

The following quarter was dedicated to the Corsican general and eventual emperor and his siblings, where we saw memorabilia which helped us understand more about his background.

We quickly found out that The Colossus of the Nineteenth Century – as he was dubbed, for he was one of the most influential leaders of his era – and his whole family fled to France in 1779, when he was 10 years old. Five years later, he entered the highly respected École Militaire and was the first Corsican to graduate from the esteemed institution.

We descended the stairs to arrive at the many family chambers, with aged photographs of the clan and their friends, as well as images of various agricultural instruments used on the area’s fertile soil, such as millstones, earthenware jars and oil extractors.

We were told that all of Napoleon’s siblings held appointed aristocratic posts. Joseph, the eldest brother, was the French minister to Parma and king of Naples and Spain; Lucien, president of the Council of Five Hundred and became the prince of Canino; Louis was king of Holland; while the youngest Jerome, who led a division at Waterloo, was the king of Westphalia.

And it didn’t end there; he also took care of his sisters. Elisa was appointed princess of Piombino and Lucca, as well as grand duchess of Tuscany; Caroline, grand duchess of Cleves and Berg, and later on queen of Naples; and Pauline, princess of Guastalla.

The front garden hosts a bust of his heir, Napoléon François Charles Joseph Bonaparte – commonly called Napoleon II – who died at the young age of 21 due to tuberculosis. In light of this, his cousin, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, was named the heir and became the longest-serving head of state since the French Revolution.

Our next destination was the vista of the Place d’Austerlitz, where a monument of the great leader dressed in military attire was erected. The place commemorates the Battle of Austerlitz, regarded as his greatest victory. A wide flight of steps flanked by two bronze eagles with open wings, which bear the dates 1769 and 1821 – the years of his birth and death – leads up to the statue, which is perched upon a granite pyramid.

Subsequently, we were at the Place de Gaulle, adjacent to the beach, where a shrine for Napoleon and his four brothers – representing their triumphs – stands.

The memorial was collaborated on by six different artists. Antoine-Louis Barye forged the equestrian Napoleon, his head crowned with a laurel wreath, a chlamys on his shoulder and a symbol for victory in his right hand. Other maestros did the brothers: Aimé Millet for Joseph; Gabriel-Jules Thomas for Lucien; Jean-Claude Petit for Louis; and Jacques-Léonard Maillet for Jérôme. Gabriel-Vital Dubray made the slabs upon which it was established.

We took a short break at the nearby Place Foch, a busy market square, home to the Four Lions Fountain, a majestic marble idol of toga-draped Napoleon in the rotunda, with his feline companions in the cardinal directions. It serves as a crossroads for the district.

Corsican cuisine is equal parts – are you ready for this – Alpine, Mediterranean, French, plus Italian and it all looks so rich, so we only had coffee and pastries at a café. A soft yet firm dessert called fiadone, a cross between a cheesecake and a flan, made up of sugar, eggs, lemon zest, cornstarch and a pinch of salt, was our delicacy of choice.

With the day about to end, we wound down to the penultimate venue – recommended by nearly every local and visitor – Musee Fesch, which was established by Napoleon’s uncle, Corsica-born Cardinal Joseph Fesch, and is considered to be the most important French museum after the Louvre.

An imposing statue of Fesch stands in the middle of the expansive courtyard. The four-story showroom contains over 400 works, some of which belong to the religious leader’s personal treasury. A lot of Italian primitives, Roman and Napolitan baroque paintings, as well as one of the finest collections of Italian masters, to include Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Bellini and Cosmè Tura, can be appreciated here.

With a small bag of memorabilia in my hand and big revelations instilled in my memory, I returned to our floating hotel, more than ever satisfied, for I have checked off another item in my must-visit list.