The house of Napoleone

In front of the small Place Lethia, that entertains the bust of the king of Rome child, carved by E.J. Vezien in 1936, the house native of the emperor rises. The construction, that goes up again to the XVII sec., introduces a very sober and deprived façade of any decoration or I mark badge to exception of the weapons of family. The house entered to belong to the family patrimony in 1682. Charles Bonaparte was installed you in 1743, occupying the ground floor and the first floor, while his/her cousins Well of Suburb they lodged to the second floor. To the inside, the aspect that it introduces to our days is totally different from that of the House Buonaparte that knew the young Nabulio (nickname of Napoleone). In May 1793, threatened by the partisan of Paul, the Bonapartes owed run away from Ajaccio. Their house was ransacked. During the English (1794-1796) occupation, it was requisition as emigrants' ownership: for a game of the destiny, Hudson Lowe would have lodged you, the future jailer of the emperor to Sant'Elena. The ground floor had been turned into deposit of ammunition.
Returned to Ajaccio in 1797, the mother of Napoleone, Letitia, succeeded in rearranging the house thanks to an indemnity poured her by the Direttorio. She had then the great gallery of the plain I° to build and it again furnished the house. The actual mobilio goes up again to this period. To his/her return from Egypt, September 29 th 1799, the general Bonaparte made port to Ajaccio and you/he/she could admire this way the house of family completely transformed, house that would not have seen again anymore.
In 1805 the emperor gave this house to the cousin of his/her mother, Andrew Ramolino and in 1923 you/he/she was given as a present to the State from the prince Vittorio Napoleone, descending of the king Gerolamo.
The visit begins from the 2° floor - they cross you four very bright rooms with ceilings to the Italian and floors to red tiles. The first room remembers the origins of the family: genealogical table of the family Bonaparte up to 1959. To notice a tree genealogical fact of hair, conceived by a young girl of Court to the time of the Secondo Impero and portraits of the parents of Napoleone. In the showcases objects are exposed belonged to Napoleone and its parents, written, photos of documents of file, miniatures and the facsimile of the action of recognition of nobility of the family Bonaparte compiled by the superior Suggestion of Corsica September 13 th 1771.
In the second room the Primo Impero is recalled: portraits of his/her brothers and the sisters of Napoleone have compromised. To observe the 12 cameos with the effigy of the members of the imperial family and the eight medallions enameled that Napoleones surround, withdrawn by Girodet in the suit of the crowning, encircled by a crown of laurel.
The third room opens on the alcove where Bonaparte would perhaps have slept to his/her return from Egypt. Above the fireplace, portrait of the greatest brother, the king Luigi, and, of forehead, portrait of the daughters of this last, Zenaide and Carlotta, in 1805. To observe the Florentine chest of the XVIII sec. of wood of rose. The last room of this plan is devoted to Napoleone III to the empress Eugenia and the imperial prince. The two stays are recalled you in the Corsica (1860 and 1869) of Napoleone III and the empress.
1° floor - it salts her from game, furnished in style Luigi XVI and, adjoining, the bedroom of Madams Letitia, with beautiful mobilio Luigi XV, is richly carpeted of red fabric and adorned by a chandelier in glass of they Wall up. In her "room native" of Napoleone, a small room and harmonized on the tonalities of the yellow, an Italian secrétaire of the XVIII sec can be admired., of hard stones (lapis lazzuli, madreperla...), and an ivory manger, that Napoleone had brought his/her mother from the east. The great gallery, long 12 m, introduces a beautiful parquet in walnut-tree, with disposition to the Hungarian. Carpeted of pale green and soberly furnished in style Direttorio, it constitutes, of fact, a saloon that connects the places of the small house to the principal house, purchased in 1797 to widen the residence: a room for the music, in which it detaches a spinet of the period of the Consulate and two small rooms. You tells that in one of them, in 1799, a communicating trap door with the ground floor allowed the general Bonaparte to run away with Berthier and Murat, to avoid that "courage surrendered him/it dinnanzi to the good heart of its friends", that had to leave. Returning in the principal body of the building the room meets him from lunch, that leans out on the Place Letizia.
Ground floor - In the wine cellars to form of time, you bleaches to mortar, objects of interest are exposed etnografico. To notice a press and a mill to oil. In the entry it is preserved the sedan on which, according to the tradition, Letitia would have been transported in all hurry from the church just before to give Napoleone to the light.
To continue along the rue St-Charles. The road leads in the rue Bonaparte, the ancient one "astute carrugio" of the Genoese city where the merchants resided and that it divided the city in two separate districts: to North the poor district of the Slaughter house stretched him, to South that lived by the middle class. It is worth to give a glance, to the n° 15, to the Building Well of Suburb to which the trompes the oeil in chiaroscuro color ochre that the windows decorate they confer an Italian style. To the ground floor, a monumental front door of white marble, with a pediment stemmato sustained by two columns, gives a solemn aspect to the building.

Napoleonic (Musée Napoléonien) museum
In the atrium, statue of marble of Gerolamo Bonaparte, work of Bosio (1812).
To the first floor:
Saloon - Two objects postpone us the one to the first instants of life and the other to the death of the emperor: the photocopy of its action of baptism of July 21 st 1771, compiled in Genoese, and an I tread of bronze of its mortuary mask, realized to Sant'Elena. To the walls of this saloon, in style empire, is suspended great portraits of the family Bonaparte: Napoleone in the suit of the crowning, work of Gérard, his/her father, withdrawn by Girodet, his/her maternal uncle, the cardinal Fesch, painted by Maglioli and his/her brothers Joseph, king of Naples and then of Spain, withdrawn by Gérard, Luigi, king of Holland, realized by Hodges, Gerolamo, king of Westfalia, work of Bezzoli. The portraits of Napoleone III and the empress Eugenia, work of Winterhalter, completes this " gallery of paintings ". Among the different busts, to observe that of Letitia that, reaches the apex of the honors, it didn't stop repeating: I " have seven or eight sovereigns that one day they will be thrown again among my braccias ". The bust of the king of Rome child, work of Bartolini, adorned the room of the emperor during its exile. On the ceiling, the painting on glued cloth, incomplete, realized in 1840 by Domenico Frassati, show the apotheosis of the emperor. The splendid chandelier was given in 1969 from Czechoslovakia on the occasion of the bicentennial of the birth of Napoleone.
Room of the medals - it Entertains a collection of coins and gold medals, of silver and of bronze (218 pieces), of the period 1797-1876, you leave in inheritance to the city of Ajaccio from Joseph Napoleone, said prince Gerolamo and a second collection (Vognsgaard) received in 1974. To observe, on the left entering, a bomboniera set of diamonds with the effigy of the prince Gerolamo. The central showcase recalls the life in the Napoleonic epoch. After all in the room, copy in gold (1899) of the crown of laurel that celebrates the centennial of the Consulate and that you/he/she was worn on the back part of the head according to the ancient manner.