- L'Île-Rousse
French commune
nomcommune=L'Île-Rousse
Railway station
région=Corse
département=Haute-Corse
arrondissement=Calvi
canton=L'Île-Rousse
insee=2B134
cp=20220
maire=
mandat=
intercomm=
longitude=8.93805555556
latitude=42.6355555556
alt moy=15 m
alt mini=0 m
alt maxi=151 m
hectares=250
km²=2.5
sans=2774
date-sans=1999
dens=1109
date-dens=1999L'Île-Rousse ("Isula Rossa" in Corsican) is a commune in the
Haute-Corse department ofFrance on the island ofCorsica .It was founded in
1758 byPasquale Paoli to create a port that would not be in the hands of theGenoese like Calvi. Italian being still the administrative language of Corsica (until 1848), the town was originally called "Isola Rossa" (Red Island, from the ochre colour of a rocky islet that served as a natural harbour).WithSaint-Florent , it is one of only two communes in thedépartement to have a French name — all the others have kept their Italian names despite the repeated demands of Corsican nationalists.History
Inhabited since very ancient times (3 - 5 000 years BC), l'Île-Rousse was 1 000 BC a small, prosperous town dependent on Tyre in
Phoenicia , called Agilla. Destroyed by the Phoenician fleet of Calaris (Galeria ), Agilla come under Roman rule as Rubico Rocega (red rock) until the 4th century. Being so close to the sea, it was threatened by pirates and other potential enemies, and was not inhabited for several centuries except for fishermen and peasants who lived on the products of the sea and earth around the villages ofSanta Reparata andMonticello .In the 17th century, merchants from
Santa Reparata established shops to trade by sea with the coastal villages of theBalagne ,Nebbio , and the west of theCap Corse . About 1759,Pascal Paoli , who often came to Balagne, decided to equip Corsica with a port in the north west of the island to try to cut the sea traffic betweenGenoa and Calvi. His plans prepared, he persuaded the Balagne government, sitting inAlgajola ] , to authorise him to create a fort protecting the port (the Scalu) on 10 Decemner 1765.L’Île-Rousse was born from this decision.
Description
Built on a bay bounded to the north west by the rocky islets of red
porphyry which give it its name, and to the south by an immaculate white sand beach, l’Île-Rousse is presented to the tourist in all its beauty, extending westwards from the sea to the hill of the Sémaphore and the col de Fogata.The old town of Pascal Paoli, le Père de la Patrie (the Father of the Fatherland), is made up of paved streets, almost rectilinear and oriented north-south. From the quays of the commercial port installed on 3 of the 6 small islands, the fishing port and the bridges which link the harbour complex to the coast and the market with its twenty one columns, the fortifications and the houses of the old city grew over the years, from 1765 into the first half of the 19th century.
Certain houses with their interior
Florentine staircases are remarkable. The first church built in 1740 and destroyed in 1936 gave its name to the rue Notre-Dame. The church dedicated to Notre Dame de Miséricorde is next to an oldFranciscan convent, while the parish church of l’Île-Rousse, the Immaculée Conception de Marie, is on the west of the main square, with its enormous date palms (planted 1890) in the shade of which it is good to play a game of "petanque ".The new town blends harmoniously with the old at the place Paoli, shaded by hundred year old plane trees, where it is good to take the summer air. The old town offers visitors the chance to stroll on the old paving stones, partly restored, along streets with historic names: Pascal Paoli,
Napoleon , les freres Arena (Arena brothers), Luois Philippe, Agilla..Built by Pascal Paoli, equipped by its municipal officials, after 1815 with a
blazon decorated with the royal lily of France and run for than a half-century by electedBonapartist officials, l’Île-Rousse is a town with a share in the history of Corsica. Its contradictions make it an attractive and unexpected place for the tourists who come each year to sit down under the plane trees of its beautiful central square.Personalities
*
Pascal Paoli References
*"Most of the original content of this article comes from [http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=L%27%C3%8Ele-Rousse&oldid=9546157 this version] of the equivalent French-language Wikipedia article, ."
External links
* [http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=decimal&latitude=42.6355555555556&longitude=8.93805555555556&zoom=8 Map of L'Île-Rousse on Mapquest] In French:
* [http://www.ign.fr/affiche_rubrique.asp?rbr_id=1087&CommuneId=31101 L'Île-Rousse on the site of the Institut Géographique National]
* [http://www.recensement.insee.fr/RP99/rp99/co_navigation.co_page?nivgeo=C&codgeo=2B134&theme=ALL&typeprod=ALL&lang=FR&quelcas=LISTE L'Île-Rousse on the site of INSEE]
* [http://www.quid.fr/communes.html?mode=query&req=L'Ile-Rousse L'Île-Rousse on the site of Quid]
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