_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.
[Map: Ajaccio]
[Headnote: NAPOLEON'S BIRTHPLACE.]
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.
[Headnote: CATHEDRAL.]
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.
[Headnote: MEMORIAL CHAPEL.]
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.
[Headnote: WALKS.]