The story of this place
Napoleone Buonaparte was born in this modest townhouse in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 15 August 1769—just fifteen months after the Republic of Genoa ceded the island to France, making the future emperor a French subject by the narrowest margin of timing. The Bonapartes were minor Corsican nobility; the house was the family home for generations. Ransacked by British-backed partisans in 1793 when the family fled the island, it was later restored with an imperial subsidy. Napoleon returned only briefly in 1799 on his way from Egypt to seize power in France. The house is now a national museum preserving family furniture and the alcove where the emperor was reputedly born.