Saint-Florent, in Corsican: San Fiurenzu, is a French commune, located in the departmental district of Haute-Corse and the territory of the community of Corsica.
Nebbio Cathedral
The Cathedral of Nebbio located in
Saint-Florent (Haute-Corse) in the department of Haute-Corse was the
seat of the diocese of Nebbio until 1789, when it was abolished and
attached to the diocese of Ajaccio.
Mortella Tower
The
tower of the Mortella (in Corsican: torra di Mortella) is a ruined
Genoese tower located in the commune of Saint-Florent, in the French
department of Haute-Corse. The Mortella Tower is listed as a
historic monument by decree of March 8, 1991.
Citadel of Saint-Florent
The citadel of Saint-Florent is a
citadel located in Saint-Florent in Haute-Corse, France. The citadel
of Saint-Florent has two round towers and a square tower. It
strategically guarded the Gulf of Saint-Florent by protecting its
port and the “rear” of Bastia.
History
Built in 1440 by
the Doge of Genoa Giano I di Campofregoso, the citadel was developed
and improved several times, whether by the Genoese in the sixteenth
century, in 1553 by General Paul de La Barthe de Thermes or in the
eighteenth century when the city consolidates its fortifications1.
The citadel was transformed again at the end of the 19th century and
the beginning of the 20th century.
The town of Saint-Florent
was founded in the 16th century around the citadel.
In 1795,
Pascal Paoli left Corsica for his exile in England from this
citadel.
“The weak citadel on the land side had only a
detachment of twenty-five men when I visited it. Fort Gentili takes
its name from the brave Corsican general who built it, who defended
it so intrepidly in 1794, and only gave in after General Dundas had
managed to miraculously establish his artillery up to the ridge and
through the rocks. from the Stolli mountain. France then temporarily
lost Corsica; England has lost her forever, but she has the ashes of
her two greatest men: Paoli rests at Westminster, and Napoleon's
bones remain captive at St. Helena. "
- Antoine Claude Valery in
Voyages in Corsica, on the island of Elba and in Sardinia, 1837
Prehistory
Archeology indicates that this territory was
already occupied in the ancient Neolithic. The chroniclers speak of
the existence, one kilometer west of the present city, of the Roman
city of Cersunum. In addition, about a kilometer to the south-west
of Monte Revinco in Agriates, in the municipality of
Santo-Pietro-di-Tenda, is a dolmen classified MH.
Saint-Florent was founded by the Genoese in the 16th century. But
from 1440, a citadel was built to resist Aragonese, French and
Ottoman assaults.
It was a village surrounded by an enclosure
which sheltered nearly three hundred fires distributed between
Terravecchia and Terranova, with a suburb to the south. There was a
convent for minors abandoned in the 15th century. The only tower, or
castle of S. Florent, which was located less than half a mile from
land in front of the islet of Roya, was undoubtedly to keep the
neighboring saltworks of Roya where one made every year a little
salt, destroyed at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The land
of Saint-Florent was the first to be given to the Office of Saint
Georges, in the year 1483. It enjoyed numerous franchises and
exemptions in Genoa and Corsica.
Each year a new officer
arrived who was both governor and podestate. He administered justice
in the company of four consuls taken from the people of the country;
this tribunal had jurisdiction only over the inhabitants of
Saint-Florent. These were exempt from pruning, as were those of
Calvi, Biguglia and Bastia.
1438 - Tommasino de Campofregoso,
doge of Genoa, to put an end to the struggles between the two
brothers Giovanni and Nicolò de Montalto against Luciano de Casta
and Opicino Leccitano, sent to the island as governor Janus, his
nephew.
1440 - Janus populated and fortified the land of
Saint-Florent, the gulf of which he found advantageous, then he
returned to Genoa.
1445 - the Doge sent as governor Gregorio
Adorno, his relative, with a hundred men. The latter landed at
Saint-Florent.
Corsica was divided between a crowd of lords;
Saint-Florent belonged to Governor Galeazzo de Campofregoso,
1449 - Lodovico de Campofregoso, brother of Janus, is appointed
governor and lord of Corsica by Nicolas V.
1453 - A Catalan
corsair arrives at Saint-Florent with two galleys, on which
Vincentello d'Istria was as a passenger. Yielding to Vincentello's
suggestions, the privateer besieged this weakly defended place and
seized it without difficulty. After leaving Vincentello with a
garrison there, he sailed for Naples, in order to engage the King of
Aragon to undertake the conquest of Corsica.
The Protectors of
the Office of Saint-Georges sent Pier Battista D'Oria to Corsica at
the head of five hundred infantry. He presented himself in front of
Saint-Florent with two vessels; after a few engagements, Vincentello
abandoned the place which capitulated.
1462 - Francesco Spinola
governor in Corsica for the Office, leaving Bastia, retires to
Saint-Florent where he dies.
1464 - Francesco Sforza, Duke of
Milan, then very powerful prince, after seizing Genoa, sends the
Milanese Francesco Manetto to the island with considerable forces.
The latter, barely disembarked at Saint-Florent, took possession of
the place. Immediately Vincentello, the Bishop of Aleria, Giocante
and all the other Corsicans, with the exception of Count Polo Della
Rocca and the lords of Cap-Corse, came to him to swear loyalty to
him.
1483 - Jacopo IV Appiano, (or Jacques IV) lord of Piombino,
who had some secret views of Corsica, sent his brother Gherardo de
Montagana to the island with a hundred infantry, almost all from the
island of Elba. The Corsicans all followed him and swore loyalty to
him, honoring him with the title of Count of Corsica. He walked on
Saint-Florent, which he took over; the siege lasted long enough,
punctuated by numerous deadly skirmishes for both parties. In the
end, the besieged, driven from the outer village and reduced to
extreme distress, entered into negotiations, asking before
surrendering that they be given time to inform Tommasino de
Campofregoso, their lord, in Genoa of their situation. . However,
Tommasino sold his fortresses and all the rights he had over Corsica
to the Office of Saint George for two thousand gold crowns. The
latter immediately sent to the island, as commissioner, Francesco
Pammoglio, who had previously been vicar in Corsica. Pammoglio left
Genoa with a galley and arrived at Saint-Florent at the time when
the time limit obtained by the besieged to deliver the place
expired. As soon as he arrived he had it published that Corsica had
been sold by Tommasino to the Office. Count Gherardo, terrified when
he saw that he had to fight the powerful Office of St. George,
suddenly raised the siege of St. Florent and returned to Venzolasca.
1487 - Giovan Paolo di Leca leads the revolt of most of Corsica
against the Genoese. The Protectors of the Office sent on two ships
and two galleys fifteen hundred infantry and eighteen horses
commanded by Damiano Canazzo and Monsignor de Falconi, a Frenchman.
They were accompanied by four commissioners, three of whom were then
chosen at Genoa. Domenico Spinola, one of the commissioners who was
in Bastia, was confirmed in office. The landing takes place in
Saint-Florent.
For a long time Corsica will be governed by the
Office of St. George, and under this government it will live quietly
for seventy years.
Modern times
1501 - Corsica remains
under the authority of St. George for several years, with no notable
events except for the raids by Catalan privateers. One day in bad
weather, two of their staff were forced to take refuge in
Saint-Florent; the crews with Romeo their captain, were taken
prisoner and taken to Bastia where they were hanged up to the last
man.
1506 - The Office destroys the Saint-Florent salt mine.
1525 - The plague, which reappears even more frightening in 1528,
decimates a considerable part of the population.
The siege of
Saint-Florent by the Genoese 1553-1554
Wanting to embark on a
glorious expedition, in which the king's interests would be
discussed with caution and supported with courage, Thermes was of
the opinion that before the departure of the Allied Turkish fleet,
an attempt should be made with light troops on the Corsica which was
all set to be an easy conquest.
1553 - August 24, Monsignor
de Thermes, general of King Henry II in Corsica, determined to make
a landing in Corsica, arrived in Saint-Florent with four thousand
elite Italian infantry, which he maintained in Siena. He found the
city, which had been fortified only against the raids of the
corsairs, deserted by the fleeing Genoese soldiers and governor. The
inhabitants of Genoa offered no resistance. They sent to present the
keys of the city to the French general who was entering
Saint-Florent with all his troops. Recognizing the advantageous
position of this city and the convenience of its gulf, Thermes
immediately resolved to make it a stronghold.
Preparing to
support an impending war against Genoa that was preparing a fleet
and troops to retake Corsica, Thermes set about fortifying
Saint-Florent and Ajaccio.
1553 - November 15, in the middle of
the afternoon, the Genoese armada enters the port of Saint-Florent.
Thermes had completed the fortifications of the square; he had
appointed Giordano Orsino his lieutenant general, governor of that
place.
Arriving in the Gulf, Andrea D'Oria withdrew with her
entire fleet on the Mortella side, west of St. Florent, five miles
from the square, without letting anyone land. The next day he left
the Mortella with the whole fleet, and went aboard on the other side
of the gulf, at Olzu, where he landed all his infantry on boats and
skiffs. As soon as they landed, the infantry marched in battle order
to the convent of St. Francis, about four hundred paces from the
square. There she found in front of her a number of French
arquebusiers sent by Giordano Orsino to prevent the Genoese from
settling in the convent; the French offered little resistance as
they were compelled to yield to superior forces and withdrew into
the square.
Recognizing that it was impossible to storm St.
Florent, Agostino Spinola knew that the city was poorly supplied
with food. With Andrea D'Oria, they decided to stick to the
investment. Responsible for the conduct of the siege, he had a fort
erected to the west of the city, on the beach of La Roya, where he
put a strong garrison and much artillery, and entrusted its defense
to Imperiale D'Oria, lord of Dolceacqua. As for Andrea D'Oria, he
had a fort built at the Mortella, so that he could remain safe there
with his fleet. The blockade was complete and the siege could begin.
The besieging Genoese soldiers went every day in groups, to seek
refreshments in the neighboring villages, attracting by their
insolence the contempt of the rising Corsican population. "Not a day
went by that no soldier was killed or ransacked; in the very end
they made a real massacre of the Genoese soldiers. »
Thermes sent Giovanni of Turin, one of the most famous captains
that the king had in his service at that time, with 150 arquebusiers
to supply the besieged. During a skirmish, Giovanni of Turin was
pierced by an arquebus shot recklessly fired by one of his very
soldiers. Admiral Andrea D'Oria agreed to have his body transported
to Livorno, from where he hoped the Duke of Florence would send it
to Borgo a Sansepolcro, homeland of Giovanni of Turin. But the ship
carrying the beer sank during the crossing.
But mortality was
great in the army which besieged Saint-Florent. “The number of
soldiers who died was staggering. This mortality was caused by the
air which in this place is still unhealthy, but was then more
pestilential than ever, and also by the sufferings and privations
that one endured there more than anywhere else, because it rained
almost every day. . ".
But fortune for the Genoese wanted four
thousand Spaniards to arrive in the port of Calvi, with nine ships,
under the command of Don Luis de Lugo Adolentado Canarie. It was the
King of Spain, Philip II, who had sent them to the aid of the place.
With other troops raised, the Genoese were thus able to continue the
conduct of the siege.
Sampiero Corso burned down the Mortella
tower, which was taken by surprise from the Genoese defenders.
D'Oria reinforced his army by bringing in a thousand Germans
commanded by Colonel Alberic, Count of Lodrone. He had a fort built
in Olzu, as he had built one in Mortella, then he linked these two
forts by a line of ships, galleys and other boats, so that the
passage was closed to the smallest skiff. .
Giordano Orsino
not benefiting from any help, he finally had to give in to famine
and capitulated under certain conditions: the place would be handed
over to the Genoese; Giordano, Vallerone and their people would come
out with their bundled weapons, their banners in the scabbard, and
without beating the drum; they would embark at Saint-Florent itself,
and would be transported safe and sound with their luggage to
Antibes. During the eight months which would follow the
capitulation, Giordano could not take up arms against the Duke of
Florence; moreover, none of the soldiers rebelling against the
emperor, the government of Genoa and the Office of Saint George, who
would be found in the place, could enjoy the benefit of the
capitulation. These articles were stipulated and signed in the
square of Saint-Florent by Count Alberico de Lodrone and Carlo
Orsino, sent by D'Oria with full powers for this purpose. Count
Alberico de Lodrone obtained his freedom, but could not conclude
anything.
1554 - February 17, D'Oria took possession of the
ruined square of Saint-Florent, with the exception of the fortress.
Ten thousand is the estimated number of those who succumbed during
the long siege of Saint-Florent, both in the camp and in the fleet.
Genoese Corsica
1559 - The new Genoese commissioners, Giovan
Battista Grimaldi and Cristoforo Saoli, peacefully take possession
of the island. Artillery and other necessary things are brought in
for the occupation of the fortresses that Giordano Orsino was to
hand over to them. They set sail for Saint-Florent where Giordano,
with eight galleys and other boats had gone to wait for them, to
relieve their duties there, the governor, Monsignor de Masses, the
royal prosecutor Jean Michel Pertuis and the judge Antonio Torelli .
After having withdrawn the artillery and all the weapons belonging
to the king, Giordano gives the place to the commissioners. On
September 5, 1559, the act of restitution of the place of
Saint-Florent was signed. The next morning, the commissioners set
sail for Calvi. On the way they take possession of the Algajola
which was also in the power of the French.
1559 - September 18,
the general act of restitution of Corsica is signed in Bonifacio.
1561 - Until then submitted to the Office of Saint-George, the
island of Corsica comes under the authority and government of the
Serene Signoria who immediately appointed two new commissioners whom
she sent to take possession of the island; these were Giuliano Sauli
and Francesco Lomellino. They visited the entire island and went to
Saint-Florent, Calvi, Ajaccio, Bonifacio and returned to Bastia
where they embarked for Genoa.
In these times of mistrust, the
Signoria of Genoa, considering the importance of the fortress of
Saint-Florent, enlightened on the goal that Sampiero was obstinately
pursuing, resolved to rebuild this fortress and for this purpose
sent Giorgio D'Oria with the engineer Giacopo Fratino, from Morcò in
Lombardy. As soon as they arrived, they began the work without
delay, completed it in a short time and returned to dry land.
1562 - Sampiero, an irreconcilable enemy of the Genoese who had
thrown him into prison when Giovan Maria Spinola ruled Corsica,
banished from his homeland and lost all the property he once owned
in Corsica, had the firm resolve to start the war again . With the
support of Queen Catherine of Medici, he went to find Francis the
King of Navarre and told him in full detail the conversation he had
had with the queen. The king gave her consent. The King of Navarre
and Queen Catherine wrote to the King of Algiers and the Great Turk
to explain their intentions. On June 24, Sampiero arrived in Algiers
where the king gave him a cordial reception and gave him letters of
recommendation for the Great Lord in Constantinople.
1564 - On
July 29, he landed in a galley at St. Florent, with his company,
Captain Stefano D'Oria, lord of Dolceacqua, with the title of
commander-in-chief of the Genoese troops, which the Senate had
hastily dispatched in Corsica, following the complete rout of
Genoese troops in a battle at Caccia against those of Sampiero. In
early October, Don Lorenzo Figuerroa arrived on a ship in St.
Florent with three hundred infantry sent by Philip II, King of
Spain.
1565 - Commissioners then have all the earthworks that
Giordano Orsino had recently erected in St. Florent razed; they did
the same in Belgodère and Ischia, in the pond.
On July 13, three
of the companies which the King of Spain had bribed at his expense
landed at St. Florent.
On August 10, Stefano D'Oria, determined
to seize the castle of Corte, again left Bastia with all his
infantry and took the direction of Saint-Florent where he remained
until the 15th, waiting for the artillery which had to arrive from
Calvi to help him take the aforesaid castle. The artillery arrived
by sea on Ostricone beach on 18 August.
On December 4, Stefano
embarks on a galley in St. Florent to return home.
1566 - A
detachment of Corsicans who were in the service of the Genoese and a
few horsemen lodged at Saint-Florent.
1573 - Unfaithful
privateers continue to infest the island with their piracy, mainly
on the part of the coast between Portovecchio and Bonifacio and on
the stretch from St. Florent to Calvi.
1578 - The diocese of
Nebbio is conferred by Pope Gregory XIII on Marc 'Antonio Monte, of
the Gulf of La Spezia. Landed in Bastia on September 15, he died of
a violent fever on December 10 of the same year.
1593 - A certain
Filippo, of Lota, abducted in 1560 by the Turks at the age of nine,
sold, mutilated, became a wealthy merchant when he reached the age
of man. He had a twenty-bench galleon built in the Levant and went
to Barbary, where he had several Christians regained their freedom.
On June 22, in Porto Genovese, he managed to free ten Christian
slaves and six Turks who were chained, before fleeing. Pursued, he
managed to escape in the direction of Barcelona. A terrible storm
occurs that forces him to go along the coasts of France. He was glad
to be able to enter the Gulf of St. Florent. As they had vowed to
give the galleon to the first church where they would find rest,
they donated to the church of St. Florent, the galleon with all its
equipment.
The Great Corsican Revolt 1729-1769
1729 - May
20, gunmen attack Mortella's tower and seize eight rifles, powder
and bullets.
1730 - February 21, Governor Felice Pinelli, elected
governor on April 1, 1728, learns that Farinole, Patrimonio, San
Fiorenzo and Algajola are under siege and that Corte and Rogliano
have fallen into the hands of the Corsicans. He wrote to Bishop
Gaetano Aprosio, Bishop of Nebbio, asking him to intervene with the
besiegers of San Fiurenzu. The deputies obtained from the Corsicans
the acceptance of the armistice.
On April 12, Extraordinary
Commissioner Girolamo Veneroso arrived in the Gulf of St. Florent
and then traveled by sea to Bastia, where he immediately issued a
general amnesty.
April 18 to May 22, Pinelli visits the provinces
(or presidents) of Porto-Vecchio, Bonifacio, Ajaccio, Calvi and San
Fiorenzo.
On December 23, the Corsicans headed for Bastia in two
columns, one on the heights, the other in the plain. Marquis Camillo
Doria, commissioner to whom the Republic gave full military powers,
hurried back by sea from Ajaccio, where he set up his Q.G., to San
Fiorenzo and then to Bastia.
1731 - March 29, the inhabitants of
Nebbio, under the orders of Father Poletti, of Olmeta, one of the
warlords of the Nation, lay siege to San Fiurenzu.
On April 6,
General Philibert Evariste Ciattoni, the new Rebel Leader, convenes
a diet in Saint Florent to gain recognition from the island’s
villages and magistrates. He designates pedrillo glacelli, former
judge of the Pièvé as lieutenant general.
On April 17, Poletti granted an eight-day arms suspension to the
commander of San Fiurenzu. If no relief has reached him by then, he
will have to hand over the fort and city to the Nationals, and the
besieged will be able to withdraw with the honors of war.
On
April 25, the Republic asked Ghjambattista Sorba, of Ajaccio, his
minister before the Court of France, to inform the French government
that ships should board only the ports of Bastia, Calvi, Bonifacio
and San Fiorenzo. She begs the King of France to forbid her subjects
from carrying weapons and ammunition of war to the rebels.
April
27, surrender of San Fiorenzo. The Corsicans recover eight pieces of
cannon. The four in Mortella's tower had already been taken by
Angulu Matteu Stefanini.
In May, Luiggi Giafferi of Talasani made
a quick trip to Livorno and procured artillery for the defense of
San Fiorenzo.
On May 18, Erasimu Orticoni embarked at San
Fiorenzo, commissioned by the Generals on a mission to Clement XII.
On August 10, German troops commanded by Baron Wachtendonck, who had
embarked at Genoa, landed at Bastia. Doria publishes an edict of the
Doge and the Assemblies, dated August 4, granting general pardon to
the Corsicans. "The following are excluded from the pardon: 1 °
Andria Ceccaldi, Luigi Giafferi, Ghjanfrancescu Lusinchi, Carlu
Francesco Alessandrini, from Canari, Pier'Simone Ginestra, Ghjuvan
Tumasgiu Giuliani, from Muro, and Simone Fabiani, from Santa
Reparata di Balagna; a fine of ECU 2,000 is offered for the murder
of one of them, or 2,500 for his capture. 2 ° The following
communities: Olmeta di Tuda and Oletta, Loreto and Vescovato,
Talasani, La Porta and Ficaja, Carchetto and Piedicroce, Castineto
and Morosaglia, Noceta, Rospigliani and I Gatti di Vivario,
Bustanico, Corscia and Calacuccia, Palasca and Speloncato, Muro,
Santa Reparata di Balagna, Zicavo, Bastelica, Centuri and
Morsiglia), provided they reach their homes, hand over their weapons
within 15 days and return the fort of San Fiurenzu and the tower of
Mortella. »
August 22, Ghjannatale Natali, of Olmeta, who
commanded San Fiorenzo, hands over the fort to German troops.
1732 - April 19, an edict of the Prince of Württemberg, which gives
five days to the Corsicans to return to obedience to the Republic,
is published in San Fiorenzo.
April 23, having no answer to the
edict of April 16, Württemberg ordered the march forward of the
troops of Calvi. Kulmbach occupies the Balagna where Ceccaldi was.
Subsequently, the troops stationed in the maritime squares will
advance inland. Schmettau quitte San Fiurenzu; it occupies the
Nebbio where Giafferi was, then the Costera as far as Tenda, and
Lento.
1736 - May 14, edict of Commissioner General RivarolaNote
2 to be published in Bastia, San Fiorenzo, San Pellegrino, Algajola
and Calvi, who ordered the parishes that remained loyal to the
Republic to give before six days an inventory of the armed forces at
their disposal.
On May 30, the troops of Baron Theodore de
Neuhoff, King of Corsica, attacked Bastia and San Fiorenzo
simultaneously.
June 6, Theodore passes to Balagne accompanied by
Hyacinthe Paoli and Luiggi Giafferi. The Bastia camp is entrusted to
Castineta and Arrighi; that of San Fiorenzo to Ghjuvan Natale Natali
and Ghjuvan Battista Cervoni. The king will attack, without much
success, Calenzana and Algajola.
1737 - November 10 at
Fontainebleau, signing of an agreement between France and Genoa for
the sending of troops to Corsica, in accordance with the French
proposals of August 5.
1738 - February 4, the French fleet
arrives in sight of San Fiorenzo. But a sudden storm disperses the
ships.
February 6, French boats arrive in Corsica; they dock at
San Fiorenzo, Bastia, Canari and elsewhere. Some, damaged, took
refuge in Tuscan ports. The bulk of the troops, with M. de
Boissieux, landed at San Fiorenzo. Three days later, Boissieux went
to Bastia by land.
1739 - January 8, caught in a storm, the six
companies of the Cambraisis regiment are shipwrecked at Punta di a
Civula (Punta di l'Acciolu - Palasca), at 11 o'clock in the evening.
The occupants of two tartans are taken prisoner at the mouth of the
Ostriconi. Colonel de Villemur, commander for the Balagna, will
obtain their release. Survivors of 4 buildings will disembark in San
Fiorenzo.
April 13, Maillebois travels by sea from Calvi to San
Fiorenzo.
1744 - August, Rivarola communicates to Horace Mann and
Villettes a draft convention for England's aid to the Corsicans in
exchange for one or two ports on the island, San Fiorenzo and
Portovecchio.
1745 - November 23, Marshal de Maillebois reports
to the Earl of Argenson, Secretary of State for War, the danger of
letting the English settle in San Fiorenzo.
December, disagreements worsen between Rivarola and the other
leaders. Rivarola leaves Bastia for San Fiorenzo. Townshend reunites
the Corsican chiefs at San Fiorenzo and obtains a provisional
agreement; Gaffori will remain in Bastia; Matra, at the head of all
the Corsican troops, marched on Ajaccio; Rivarola, after the capture
of Ajaccio, attacked Calvi.
1747 - September 5, the Marquis de
Bisay, who temporarily succeeds Boufflers, sends 500 soldiers to
Bastia (300 Genoese, 100 French and 100 Spanish) under the command
of Colonel Choiseul-Beaupré. He lands in Bastia and attacks Rivarola
who is forced to take refuge in San Fiorenzo.
On September 12,
Commissioner Mari, who lives in Calvi, stormed San Fiorenzo and
failed. He raised the siege before Giuliani arrived with
reinforcements.
In October, Admiral Byngh set sail from Livorno
for San Fiorenzo, Captain Stepney with two boats. On October 16, the
English ships arrived at San Fiorenzo. A council of the leaders of
the Nation met at once to consider a combined action of the
islanders and the protective nations. Rivarola and Giuliani decide
to leave for the Court of Sardinia.
1748 - May 3, three Savoy
battalions and a German battalion left Savona two days earlier,
under the protection of the English fleet, land at San Fiorenzo. At
their head was the knight Giovanni Secondo Canale di Cumiana,
brigadier of the armies of the king of Sardinia, colonel of the Asti
regiment. : * May 7, at a council of war in San Fiorenzo, between
Cumiana and the Corsican leaders, they decide to attack Bastia.
September 12, at Patrimonio, Séraphin Marie Rioult de Douilly,
Marquis de Cursay, and Cumiana sign an armistice agreement which
will be published on the 15th at San Fiorenzo.
October 18, Treaty
of Aachen: the fate of Corsica is fixed by Article 2, which
stipulates a general forgetfulness for all that may have been
committed during the war that has just ended, and by the Article 14,
which puts the Republic of Genoa in the possession of all its
states.
November, having learned of the charges against the
Corsican chiefs, Cursay requests that he return him to deposition,
on behalf of S.M. Sardinia, the fort of San Fiorenzo, in Cumiana
which refuses. On the 17th of the month he left San Fiorenzo where
he left only a hundred Piedmontese. Those leave the square on
December 20th.
December 23, San Fiorenzo is abandoned to the
French.
1749 - January 2, Cursay visits the fort of San Fiorenzo
(the name will not become St. Florent until 1801).
January 14 and
15, general consultation at Corte under the presidency of the
Marquis de Cursay, assisted by Gaffori, Giuliani and L. Ornano. The
citadel of Corte is entrusted to the French. French troops will be
stationed in San Fiorenzo, Corte, Casinca and Campoloro.
On April
21 and 22, Cursay gathered the fifteen deputies in San Fiorenzo to
tell them that the king's will was for Corsica to return under the
obedience of the Republic.
1751 - July 25, M. de Chauvelin and
Cursay receive the deputies at San Fiorenzo.
1753 - February, the
French leave Corsica.
1755 - November 5 Giovan Giacomo Grimaldi
Commissioner General in place of Stefano de'Mari since October 25,
1745, who has just taken command of San Fiorenzo, forbids access to
the city to the inhabitants of the Nebbio, as well as any trade
between the president and the province.
November 18, in San
Fiorenzo, Grimaldi tries an outing. He is repulsed while a
detachment sent from Bastia by Commissioner Giuseppe Maria Doria, is
torn to pieces by the people of Barbaggio.
December 4, meeting in
Santo Pietro to organize the blockade of San Fiorenzo. During the
month, the Corsicans attacked the defensive belt of San Fiorenzo but
were repulsed.
1756 - August 14, first treaty of Compiègne signed
by Knight Antoine-Louis Rouillé, Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, and Guérin, Secretary of the King's Command and Finance, on
behalf of Louis XV, and Agostini Paolo Domenico Sorba ( son of
Ghjambattista), plenipotentiary, on behalf of the Republic. France
grants subsidies and protection to the Republic; it received in
storage San Fiorenzo, Calvi and Ajaccio, thus preventing a landing
of the English.
1758 - September 5, edict of Pascal Paoli against
the inhabitants of San Fiorenzo who work for the Republic.
1760 -
February 10-14, San Fiorenzo attack: Clemente Paoli, on the land
side, Tiborziu Murati, on the sea side, manage to invest the city
but must withdraw after the arrival of reinforcements.
In
November, the Corsicans seize the tower of Mortella which controls
the entrance to the Gulf of Saint-Florent.
1762 - March-April,
Paoli builds the tower of Fornali to control navigation in the Gulf
of San Fiorenzo.
At the end of June, Commissioner General Sauli
sent reinforcements to San Fiorenzo.
1763 - May, the garrison of the tower of Fornali rounds a Genoese
pinque flying the French flag. As the national government alerted
the French consul in Livorno, two armed Quebecers will come to
retrieve the ship on June 18, taking two young Corsicans they met on
a boat in the port of San Fiorenzo. Paoli will get the return of the
young people but France will demand, in return, the release of F.M.
CostaNote 5, sentenced to death and detained in Corte prison. Costa,
sent to a supervised residence in Balagna, will resume his intrigues
and will be imprisoned again.
1764 - May 8, instructions of
the Republic to Agostini Paolo Domenico Sorba (son of Ghjambattista
Sorba, of Ajaccio, Minister of the Republic of Genoa at the Court of
France) to defeat the resistance of the French regarding the sending
of troops in Corsica. The Genoese, who feel that they are about to
be driven from the island, would like the rapid relief of the
soldiers of the King of France and the guard, by them, of Bastia and
San Fiorenzo, jointly, and preferably , to other maritime places.
June, Paoli strengthens the blockade of San Fiorenzo in the hope of
obtaining the capitulation of the city before a new French
intervention.
August 6, second Treaty of Compiègne between France
and the Republic of Genoa, signed by Choiseul and Sorba. France
receives in deposit for four years: Bastia, Ajaccio, San Fiorenzo,
Calvi and Algajola.
August 26 and 27, naval battle in the Gulf of
San Fiorenzo, between two Corsican ships and a Genoese flotilla that
brings troops and supplies to the city. Despite the losses, the
Genoese managed to supply the square of San Fiorenzo.
December
10, the French arrive in the Gulf of San Fiorenzo. In the following
days the troops will be distributed in the maritime places provided
for by the Treaty of Compiègne. They are placed under the command of
the field marshals: Louis-Charles Count of Marbeuf,
Commander-in-Chief and La Tour du Pin. A letter from Marbeuf to
Paoli is given to Ghj. Barbaggi and Petru Boccheciampe who were
blocking the San Fiorenzo.
1765 - January 5, Paoli addresses
a protest to the court of France against the occupation of maritime
squares, in particular San Fiorenzo. He is obliged to appeal to the
rulers of Europe.
March, under the pretext of the exchange of
prisoners between Genoa and Corsica, Marbeuf gets an interview with
Paoli. In reality, the French commander wants to talk about freedom
of trade between the presidents and the interior. He obtained the
opening of markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays: below Furiani and
near Erbalonga for the garrison of Bastia, at the tower of Fiuminale
d'Oletta for that of San Fiorenzo, at the tower of Caldanu for that
of Calvi and Algalola, under Alata for that of Ajaccio.
October,
Paoli goes to the gates of Ajacciu to receive the tribute of the
city. The inhabitants, and even the French officers, rush to the
Salines to acclaim the General. Paoli grants favors to the Ajaccio
people, guaranteeing to the owners the properties they have outside
the city, to the others the freedom to trade, to the boat owners the
free navigation. This event will encourage the people of Bastia and
San Fiorenzo to put themselves under the protection of the general.
1768 - January 2 and 4, interviews Choiseul- Ghjambattista
Buttafoco, consultant. The Minister announced that the Republic had
offered France its right of sovereignty over Corsica and, at the
same time, had negotiated with Spain a succession of French troops
at the end of the planned four years. The King of France, concerned
about the security of the Bourbons in the Mediterranean, is ready to
give his agreement to a Spanish occupation but prefers to agree with
the Corsican Nation and, for this, claims Bastia, San Fiorenzo and
Capocorso in full ownership against its guarantee of national
independence for the rest of the island.
February 13, Paoli ends
the role of Buttafoco. He asks him, before ceasing his mission, to
let the king know that the refusal of the Corsicans is not disgust
but a simple desire to preserve the future and to beg him to
dissuade the Spaniards from sending troops to Corsica and to to hand
over San Fiorenzo to the Nationals before the departure of the
French troops.
June 22, four French battalions arrive at San
Fiorenzo. The command of the town is assumed by M. de Grandmaison,
Marshal of Camp.
On July 29, Marbeuf wrote to Paoli to summon him
to withdraw his soldiers from Barbaggio and Patrimonio, in order to
leave the French free communication between Bastia and San Fiorenzo,
and to give him L'Île-Rousse. He goes at night to Teghime with 2,000
men and orders M. de Grandmaison to leave San Fiorenzo.
August 26, M de Chauvelin, lieutenant-general of the troops of
S.M. and Governor General of the Kingdom of Corsica lands at San
Fiorenzo. Instead of a two-month armistice that he refuses, Paoli
grants them at most free communication between Bastia and San
Fiorenzo.
In October, four new battalions landed at San Fiorenzo
and four at Calvi.
November 9, French troops completed their
installation in the winter quarters; they occupy the Capicorso,
Bastia, and Biguglia, San Fiorenzo, and Oletta, and communicate with
each other by a chain of redoubts. The Corsican outposts are in
Borgu, Lucciana, Muratu, Rapale, Vallecalle and Olmeta.
December
28, Chauvelin, recalled to court, embarks at San Fiorenzo.
1769 -
On the night of January 1-2, Paoli tries to surprise San Fiorenzo.
As the alert was given, the Corsicans gave up crossing the enclosure
wall.
April 9, Count De Vaux lands at San Fiorenzo.
On May 1,
the two armies face off. De Vaux stationed the bulk of his troops,
20 battalions plus cavalry, in the plain of Oletta; 90 "volunteers"
led by the Knight of Viomesnil are arranged forward; on the left,
Count Marbeuf with 3,000 men and the cavalry of the Soubise legion
went as far as the Bevinco; on the right, 2,000 men commanded by the
Field Marshal of Arcambal occupy the area between Oletta and San
Fiorenzo. For his part, Paoli established his Q.G. in Murato and had
his militias occupy the heights of the Serra di Tenda which control
the valleys of the Aliso, the Ostriconi and the Golo.
After his
defeat at Ponte Novu a few years earlier, Pascal Paoli's army, aided
by Nelson's fleet, reconquered the port of St. Florent in 1794. It
was during the brief period of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom.
The French Revolution and Corsica
1789 - Corsica belongs to the
Kingdom of France. San Fiorenzo is the seat of the royal court of
Nebbio.
On December 22, the Constituent Assembly divided France
into 83 departments. The department of Corsica is created with
Bastia as prefecture. Former communities or parishes are called
communes.
1790 - April 18, arrived in San Fiorenzo with boats to
transport his regiment to France, Colonel de Rully returned to
Bastia. Disappointed, Rully, who had taken refuge in the grenadier
barracks, was ransacked the next day by the people and killed.
On
July 12, the five dioceses of Corsica (Ajaccio, Aléria, Bastia,
Mariana and Nebbio) were reduced to one.
1791 - June 14,
mailboats board at San Fiorenzo. Four commissioners: Ghjuvan
Battista Quenza, Luigi Ciavaldini, Anton Filippu Casalta and Acchile
Murati, are in charge of transporting themselves to Bastia with an
armed troop and at the expense of the city; General Paoli is asked
to put himself at his head.
1792 - November 22, first day of the
French Republic (1st vintage year I).
1793 - January 12, boats
bringing volunteers from the mainland for the planned attack on
Sardinia arrive in sight of the Gulf of Ajaccio but are scattered by
the storm. Most boats manage to take refuge in San Fiorenzo. From
there, volunteers move to Bastia where they indulge in the worst
abuses, including desecration of churches and tombs. Embarked on the
18th for Ajaccio, they commit in this city the same acts of
indiscipline and terror.
On February 5, Antone Gentili, commander
of the San Fiorenzo National Guard, is proposed as a lieutenant
colonel by Saliceti.
On April 5, Saliceti, Delcher and
Lacombe-Saint-Michel, deputies sent to Corsica “to restore order and
provide for its defense,” landed in San Fiorenzo. The next day they
are in Bastia.
April 20, in Calvi, Corsica is disarmed by French
troops. The next day, the opposite happens in L’Île-Rousse. The
unrest prevailed throughout Corsica except Calvi, San Fiorenzo, and
Bastia, which, together with Ajaccio, were loyal to the Republic;
but everything happens without bloodshed.
August 11, the
Convention decides that the departments of the island of Corsica
will be called El Golo, the current Haute-Corse, (capital: Bastia,
districts: Bastia, Calvi and Corte) and Liamone, the current Corsica
-du-Sud, (capital: Ajaccio, districts: Ajaccio, Vico and Sartène).
The former royal court of Nebbio passes through the district of
Bastia; it is divided into cantons (ex-pievi), and the township into
communes. The town which was called San Fiorenzo, is in the canton
of the same name, in the district of Bastia and in the department of
El Golo.
September 18 to December 1, the English fleet and
Corsican troops try in vain to invest San Fiorenzo.
On December
1, Lacombe became a brigadier general in November, announcing to the
Convention the attack on San Fiorenzo by the British: 'was kept away
from the fire'.
December 29, four French warships appear in front of Biguglia. A
frigate enters the port of Bastia and then the ships will drop
anchor at San Fiorenzo. The English fleet is absent.
1794 -
January 14, Gilbert Elliot, appointed by the English Government
Governor of the Kingdom of Corsica, Moore and Koelher, disembark
from the frigate Lowestoft which arrived in the Isula Rossa harbor.
They are received by Paoli on the 16th. Accompanied by Carlu Andria
Pozzo di Borgo, Moore and Koelher leave in reconnaissance in the San
Fiorenzo area and return to Murato on the 18th. On the 19th, with
Paoli, they prepare a plan of attack. Elliot left Corsica on the
21st and Moore on the 25th.
February 5-6; the English fleet
presented itself at the entrance to the Gulf of San Fiorenzo and
made a landing near the tower of the Mortella which went two days
later.
On February 19, Lacombe evacuated San Fiorenzo to the San
Bernardinu camp and the next day to Teghime. That day, Nelson lands
at Lavasina and seizes Miomu’s tower.
On February 21, Paoli is in
San Fiorenzo where they are organizing to make the siege of Bastia.
March 6, the rest of the English Mediterranean fleet arrives in the
Gulf of San Fiorenzo.
On April 5, Elliot wrote to Henry Dundas,
Secretary of State in the Home Office, requesting the recall of
Brigadier General Abraham d’Aubant, who refused any collaboration
with Hood and raised unnecessary fortifications at San Fiorenzo.
April 18, aboard the Victory, Elliot and Lord Samuel Hood (appointed
Admiral April 11, 1794. On May 16, celebrating Hood's appointment,
the English squadron fires all its batteries at Bastia!), Commander
of the fleet British in the Mediterranean, write to d'Aubant to
reproach him for not participating in the siege of Bastia, or even
for taking a four-hour "walk" from San Fiorenzo to find out about
the situation. They solemnly call on his collaboration.
May 22,
Bastia chapter. The French retain only Calvi who will surrender on
August 20th. Elliot was appointed Viceroy of Corsica on November 1,
1794.
1801 - Under the Consulate, the commune whose name was
San Fiorenzo, becomes Saint-Florent, is still in the canton of San
Fiorenzo, in the borough of Bastia and the department of El Golo.
1811 - The departments of El Golo and Liamone are merged to form the
department of Corsica.
1828 - The township of San Fiorenzo
becomes the township of St. Florent.
Contemporary era
1942
- During World War II, resistance quickly organizes after the
Italian fascist occupier (80,000 soldiers) invades Corsica on
November 11, 1942. Two of the four Pearl Harbor secret mission
officers arrive on December 14, 1942. (Toussaint Griffi, the active
volunteer soldier and Laurent Preziosi, the resistant civilian) get
in touch with the area manager, Pierre Casale (future mayor of
Saint-Florent à la Libération) and his companions, including the
Hungarian painter Barta hosted clandestinely at home. They are
informed of the local locations of the enemy, find an agreement on a
accommodation network, liaison for coordination at the island level
of a future landing. The other two members of the mission, Pierre
Griffi and the head of the mission Roger de Saule, had remained in
Corte to expand the network and broadcast radio information with
Algiers.
1943 - October 4, Corsica was the first French
department liberated. The city of Saint-Florent was one of the
important places during the liberation of Bastia in 1943. A company
of Moroccan tabors who had landed in the Gulf of Saint-Florent, at
the cost of a fierce fight to the body to the German forces, they
removed from the German forces the fortifications installed at the
Col de Téghime, an important strategic crossing point on the road to
Bastia. At the entrance to the city from Bastia, by the sea, a
blockhouse and a Muslim cemetery bear witness to these facts.
1954 - The township of Saint-Florent was composed of the
municipalities of Barbaggio, Farinole, Patrimonio and Saint-Florent.
1973 - The township of Conca-d'Oro (capital Oletta) is created with
the forced merger of the former townships of Oletta and
Saint-Florent.
1975 - Corsica is again divided into two
departments. Saint-Florent is located in that of Haute-Corse.
Saint-Florent is today a resort for many tourists in summer.