Torra di Castelluchju
Genoese coastal defence tower in Corsica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tower of Castelluchju (Corsican: Torra di Castelluchju) is a ruined Genoese tower located in the commune of Ajaccio (Corse-du-Sud) off the west coast of the Corsica. The tower sits on the southern end of the Grande Sanguinaire, the largest island in the Îles Sanguinaires archipelago.
| Tower of Castelluchju | |
|---|---|
| Torra di Castelluchju (Corsican) | |
  Location within Corsica | |
| 41°52′32″N 8°35′16″E | |
| History | |
| Built | before 1597 |
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.[1] The exact year when the tower was built is not known,[2] but it is mentioned in a report written in 1597 for the Genoese authorities by the engineer Britio Tramallo and the lawyer Gieronimo Bonaparte. The report gives the dimensions of three structures on the island: a chapel, a round tower and the surviving small square tower. The small tower (la torretta piccola) now known as the Tour de Castelluccio, is recorded as being 5.6 m (18 ft) in height with walls 0.63 m (2.1 ft) thick at the base reducing to 0.31 m (1.0 ft) at the top. The large round tower was 6 m (20 ft) in height and 7.75 m (25.4 ft) in diameter.[3] It sat on the highest point of the Grande Sanguinaire island but was demolished in the 19th century when the existing lighthouse was constructed.[4] In Genoese documents the large round tower was referred to as the Sanguinare di Fuori or the Sanguinare di Mare while the Tour de la Parata was the Sanguinare di Terra.[5]
