Ajaccio
Hotels.—On an eminence, in its own grounds, rising gently from the sea, is the *Grand Hotel, with sea and fresh water baths and every convenience; opened at the end of the present year. A skilled English physician on the premises.
There are besides three good family hotels, charging from 8 to 12 frs.; in the Course Grandval, the H. Continental, wine 1½ fr., carpeted brick floors, garden; near it, with south exposure and full view of the bay, the *H. Suisse or Schweizerhof, wine 1 fr., smooth wood floors, partially carpeted, garden; at the top of the Course Grandval, the H. Bellevue, wine 1¼ fr., partially carpeted wood floors, garden.
These prices include coffee or tea in the morning, meat breakfast and dinner and service, but neither candles nor wine, of which the lowest price per bottle is given above. In the Place Bonaparte is the H. de France, a good French hotel, pension 8 to 12 frs.
Bankers and Money-changers.—The bank Bozzo-Costa and the bank Lanzi, both near each other in the Boulevard Roi Jerome.
The office of the Compagnie Transatlantique is in the same Boulevard; the office of the Compagnie Insulaire is in the Place du Marché.
Cabs.—The course 1½ fr., the hour 2 frs., the day 25 frs.
Tariff of return drives, with 2 frs. extra for every hour of repose.
West from Ajaccio: Scudo, 5 frs.; Vignola 1114 ft., 15 frs.; Vignola village, 10 frs.; Lisa, 15 frs.; Iles Sanguinaires, 10 frs.; St. Antoine, 5 frs.; Salario, 5 frs. North from Ajaccio: Castelluccio, 4 frs.; Mezzavia, 5 frs.; Alata and Col Carbinica, 25 frs.; Afa, 20 frs.
East from Ajaccio: the Campo dell’ Oro, or the plain at the mouth of the Gravona, 5 frs.; the Baths of Caldaniccia, 5 frs.; Bastelicaccia, 5 frs.; Pisciatella, 6 frs. Three frs. gratuity for a whole day. The horses cover on an average about thirty miles a day.
AJACCIO, pop. 19,050, the capital of Corsica, is situated on the extremity of a small gulf 677 miles from Paris and 15 to 20 hours’ sail from Marseilles. Founded in 1492 by the Bank of St. George of Genoa, a commercial association similar to the East India Company, it was raised in 1811 through the influence of Madame Letitia and Cardinal Fesch to the dignity of capital of the island, and became accordingly the residence of the Préfet and the seat of the civil and ecclesiastical Courts. Ajaccio has a handsome Episcopal chapel built by Miss Campbell, of Moniack Castle, Scotland, an accomplished lady, the authoress of a work on the island in French and English.
In the Cours Napoleon is a small French mission, whose worthy pastor, besides conducting the regular Sunday services, gives two lectures (conferences) every week, which are attended by from 80 to 100 people.
The houses in Ajaccio, as well as those throughout the island, are generally built in large square blocks of from 3 to 5 stories, each story forming a separate dwelling.
The mole at which passengers land from the steamers is at the foot of the Place du Marché. In the centre of this “Place” is a fountain ornamented with lions and a white marble statue of Napoleon I. by Laboureur. To the left of the statue is the Hotel de Ville, the markets, and the commencement of the Rue Fesch, in which is the edifice containing the public library, the museum, and the memorial chapel (p. 5); while to the right is the Rue Napoleon, in which the first opening right leads into the Place Letitia. A little beyond this opening is No. 17, the house of the Pozzo di Borgo family, of whom Charles André, 1768-1842, was the great upholder of Paoli and the bitter enemy of Napoleon I. Napoleon’s house, though not equal to that of the Borgo family, was one of the best in Ajaccio. It is well built, of three stories of six windows each, and all the rooms have a more or less handsome marble chimney-piece. Over the door is inscribed on white marble “Napoleon est né dans cette maison le XV Aovt MDCCLXIX”. A good staircase, bordered by a wrought-iron railing, leads to the top. The rooms shown are on the first floor. The first is the parlour, with a small table, a few chairs, and a piano said to have belonged to Mme. Letitia. Then after having passed through a small chamber we enter the room in which Napoleon was born, into which Madame was brought hurriedly from the church in the sedan chair kept in the end room. Over the chimney-piece are portraits of the father and mother. Then follows the dining-room, and after it the drawing-room, with inlaid wood floor and six windows on both sides. The floors of all the other rooms are of glazed tiles. In the next room is the sedan chair. Fee for party 1 fr.
This now silent and empty house was once enlivened and brightened by the fair Letitia and her large family of children, just like other men’s children; schoolboys toiling at their Plutarch or Cæsar, and their three young sisters growing up careless and rather wild, like their neighbours’ daughters, in the half-barbarous island town. There is Joseph, the eldest, then Napoleon, the second born, then Lucien, Louis, and Jerome; then Caroline, Eliza, and Pauline, the children of a notary of moderate income, who is incessantly and vainly carrying on law-suits with the Jesuits of Ajaccio to gain a contested estate which is necessary to his numerous family. Their future fills him with anxiety; what will they be in the world and how will they secure a comfortable subsistence? And behold! these same children, one after the other, take to themselves the mightiest crowns of the earth—tear them from the heads of the most unapproachable kings of Europe and wear them in the sight of all the world; and they, the sons of an Ajaccio lawyer, cause themselves to be embraced as brothers and brothers-in-law by emperors and kings. Napoleon is European Emperor; Joseph King of Spain; Louis King of Holland; Jerome King of Westphalia; Caroline Queen of Naples and Pauline and Eliza Princesses of Italy. In 1793, after the flight of Madame Letitia and her children to her country residence, the Casone, the house was pillaged by the Corsicans opposed to the French Republic.
Near the Place Letitia is the cathedral built in the 16th century by Pope Gregory. It contains the font at which Napoleon I. was baptized on the 21st July 1771.
In the Rue Fesch is the College founded in 1822. In one wing of the edifice is the public library, with 33,000 volumes, founded by Lucien Bonaparte, and the museum and picture gallery, with 900 paintings, mostly copies; and in the other the memorial chapel built by Napoleon III., lined with beautiful marble. In the crypt under the transept, left hand, is the tomb of Marie Letitia Ramolino, died at Rome in 1836; and right hand, that of Napoleon’s uncle, Cardinal Fesch, died at Rome in 1839. Both bodies were brought to this, their present resting-place, in 1851. There are, besides, the tombs of Prince Charles and of Zenaida his daughter. Napoleon’s father died in 1785 and is buried at Montpellier. Madame was only 35 at his death and had already borne him 13 children, 5 of whom were dead, and Jerome was an infant in the cradle.
Parallel with the Rue Fesch is the Cours Napoleon, by which all the diligences enter and leave the town. The continuation round the bay is bordered with plane trees. At the commencement is a bronze statue of “E. C. Abbatucci né à Zicavo le 12 Novembre 1770, mort pour la patrie le 2 Decembre 1796.” Near it is the railway station.
At the western end of the Cours Napoleon is the Place Bonaparte or Diamant, bordered with trees and ornamented with a complicate bronze monument on a granite pedestal by Violet le Duc, “à la memoire de Napoleon I. et de ses frères Joseph, Lucien, Louis, Jerome.” All are life-size statues; Napoleon is on horseback, the others on foot, marching solemnly towards the sea.