The Tower of Poghju ( co, Torra di Poghju) is a Genoese tower in

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

, located in the hamlet of Poggio in the commune of

Tomino Tomino (; co, Tuminu) is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica. Population See also * Macinaggio *Communes of the Haute-Corse department The following is a list of the 236 communes of the Haute-Cor ...

Haute-Corse Haute-Corse (; co, Corsica suprana , or ; en, Upper Corsica) is (as of 2022) an administrative department of France, consisting of the northern part of the island of Corsica. The corresponding departmental territorial collectivity merged wi ...

. The tower was probably built in the second half of the sixteenth century. It was one of a series of defences 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 early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the Lat ...

between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by

Barbary pirates The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli. This area was known i ...

. Although the design is similar to other round Genoese towers built around the Corsican coastline, its position is unusual in being situated within a hamlet at an elevation of and several kilometers from the sea. The base of the tower would have originally contained a cistern to hold rainwater collected from the roof terrace but in the nineteenth century an entrance door was constructed at the ground floor level. In 2009 the tower was added to the "General Inventory of Cultural Heritage" (

Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel The General Inventory of Cultural Heritage, known locally as the is a government body in France that "shall identify, study and publicize heritage of cultural, historical or scientific interest" They have created an Inventory to make a record of ...

) maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. It is privately owned.

Notes and references

Towers in Corsica Monuments historiques of Corsica {{Corsica-struct-stub