The Tower of Castelluchju ( co, Torra di Castelluchju) is a ruined
Genoese tower
The Genoese towers in Corsica (french: tours génoises de Corse, co, torri ghjenuvesi di Corsica, singular : , also ; it, torri genovesi di Corsica) are a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to s ...
located in the
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
of
Ajaccio (
Corse-du-Sud
Corse-du-Sud (; co, link=no, Corsica suttana , or ; en, Southern Corsica) is (as of 2019) an administrative department of France, consisting of the southern part of the island of Corsica. The corresponding departmental territorial collect ...
) off the west coast of the
Corsica. The tower sits on the southern end of the Grande Sanguinaire, the largest island in the Îles Sanguinaires
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...
.
The tower was one of a series of coastal defences built by the
Republic of Genoa
The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the La ...
between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by
Barbary pirates. The exact year when the tower was built is not known, but it is mentioned in a report written in 1597 for the Genoese authorities by the engineer Britio Tramallo and the lawyer Gieronimo Bonaparte. The report gives the dimensions of three structures on the island: a chapel, a round tower and the surviving small square tower. The small tower (''la torretta piccola'') now known as the Tour de Castelluccio, is recorded as being in height with walls thick at the base reducing to at the top. The large round tower was in height and in diameter. It sat on the highest point of the Grande Sanguinaire island but was demolished in the 19th century when the existing lighthouse was constructed. In Genoese documents the large round tower was referred to as the ''Sanguinare di Fuori'' or the ''Sanguinare di Mare'' while the
Tour de la Parata was the ''Sanguinare di Terra''.
See also
*
List of Genoese towers in Corsica
This is a list of Genoese towers in Corsica, a series of coastal defense towers constructed by the Republic of Genoa
The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and ear ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
External links
* Includes information on how to reach 90 towers and many photographs.
Towers in Corsica
Tower of Castelluchju
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