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Napoléon Bonaparte was born into a noble family in Ajaccio on August 15, 1769, and left around nine years later for France, where he took up a scholarship at the Brienne military academy.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s house in Ajaccio
The house where he was born is now a museum remarkable for its less than total enthusiasm for Corsica’s most famous son. Somehow, you can emerge with the feeling the Corsican nationalist leader Pasquale Paoli deserves equally mythical status.
The doubts were mutual. Napoléon’s relationship with his homeland was ambiguous at best. As the guidebooks note, it was his fourth choice of where to be buried after he threw in his lot with France, abandoned the Corsican nationalism he initially embraced and gallicised the Corsican Napoleone to Napoléon.
The Maison Bonaparte suffered under the changing allegiances.
Following the death of Napoléon’s father, believed to have been a result of stomach cancer, which ultimately also killed Napoléon, his mother Letizia and her remaining family fled to France, while the partisans, led by Paoli, formerly a family friend of the Bonapartes, sacked the family home.
Corsica briefly was an independent kingdom in union with Britain and the Bonapartes’ home became an arsenal and lodging house for the English.
Letizia, as a result, was among the Corsicans given an indemnity because they suffered at the hands of the English, which she used to restore the family home.
Today’s museum is to a large extent a shell, but highlights that give a sense of the Bonapartes include the olive presses in the cellar and a family tree made of hair.
Wine press in the basementBonaparte family tree made of hair
Napoléon barely returned to the family home even after it was restored, although he is said to have stayed in what is known as “la chambre de l’Alcove” in 1799 after his campaign in Egypt.
Room in which Napoleon is said to have stayed after the Egyptian campaign
We are also brought close to the great man by the sedan chair, one of the very few remaining original pieces of furniture, which was used to carry Napoléon’s mother back from mass on Assumption Day when the birth pangs began, and she was about to give birth to a future emperor.
Sedan chair used to carry Napoleon’s mother as her birth pangs began
Assumption Day on August 15 in Ajaccio is the occasion not just for religious celebrations, but also for remembering Napoléon’s birthday.
Meanwhile, for the partisans, on April 6, Corsica will mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of Paoli.
Maison Bonaparte,
Ajaccio, Corsica.
Napoléon Bonaparte was born into a noble family in Ajaccio on August 15, 1769, and left around nine years later for France, where he took up a scholarship at the Brienne military academy.
The house where he was born is now a museum remarkable for its less than total enthusiasm for Corsica’s most famous son. Somehow, you can emerge with the feeling the Corsican nationalist leader Pasquale Paoli deserves equally mythical status.
The doubts were mutual. Napoléon’s relationship with his homeland was ambiguous at best. As the guidebooks note, it was his fourth choice of where to be buried after he threw in his lot with France, abandoned the Corsican nationalism he initially embraced and gallicised the Corsican Napoleone to Napoléon.
The Maison Bonaparte suffered under the changing allegiances.
Following the death of Napoléon’s father, believed to have been a result of stomach cancer, which ultimately also killed Napoléon, his mother Letizia and her remaining family fled to France, while the partisans, led by Paoli, formerly a family friend of the Bonapartes, sacked the family home.
Corsica briefly was an independent kingdom in union with Britain and the Bonapartes’ home became an arsenal and lodging house for the English.
Letizia, as a result, was among the Corsicans given an indemnity because they suffered at the hands of the English, which she used to restore the family home.
Today’s museum is to a large extent a shell, but highlights that give a sense of the Bonapartes include the olive presses in the cellar and a family tree made of hair.
Napoléon barely returned to the family home even after it was restored, although he is said to have stayed in what is known as “la chambre de l’Alcove” in 1799 after his campaign in Egypt.
We are also brought close to the great man by the sedan chair, one of the very few remaining original pieces of furniture, which was used to carry Napoléon’s mother back from mass on Assumption Day when the birth pangs began, and she was about to give birth to a future emperor.
Assumption Day on August 15 in Ajaccio is the occasion not just for religious celebrations, but also for remembering Napoléon’s birthday.
Meanwhile, for the partisans, on April 6, Corsica will mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of Paoli.
Barbara Lewis © 2025.
By Barbara Lewis • history, year 2025 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, history