Built before 1617 Address 20217 Nonza, France | Reference no. PA00099219 Designated as world heritage site 5 July 1926 | |
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Similar Cap Corse, Tour de Sénèque, Tour de Porto, Tour de Negru, Tour de la Parata | ||
Tour de nonza dans le cap corse
The Tour de Nonza (Corsican: Torra di Nonza) is a Genoese tower located in the commune of Nonza (Haute-Corse) on the coast of the French island of Corsica. The tower sits at an elevation of 155 metres (509 ft) in the village of Nonza on the west coast of Cap Corse.
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The tower was one of a series of coastal defences built by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem the attacks by Barbary pirates. The exact date of construction is not known but the tower is included in a list compiled by the Genoese authorities in 1617 where it is recorded as only being guarded at night.
The tower of Nonza is famous for its siege in 1768, during the war between Pasquale Paoli's independent Corsica and France. The troops protecting the village of Nonza had been taken prisoners by the French forces north of the village, but the commander of the troops had remained in the tower. It is said that he managed to make the French troops believe in a fierce resistance during the siege, so that the latter would agree in his conditions for surrender, that were to let him join the rest of Paoli's troops, and to grant him the military honours. When he came out alone of the tower, the French commander, stunned, asked where the troops were. He is said to have answered : "here is the commander and the troop".
In 1926 the tower was listed as one of the official historical monuments of France.