Antiquity The city was not mentioned by the Greek geographer
Ptolemy of Alexandria in the 2nd century AD despite the presence of a place called
Ourkinion in the
Cinarca area. It is likely that the city of Ajaccio had its first development at this time. The 2nd century was a period of prosperity in the Mediterranean basin (the
Pax Romana) and there was a need for a proper port at the head of the several valleys that lead to the Gulf able to accommodate large ships. Some important underwater archaeological discoveries recently made of Roman ships tend to confirm this. Further excavations conducted recently led to the discovery of important early Christian remains suggest that an upwards reevaluation might be necessary of the size of Ajaccio city in
Late Antiquity and the beginning of the
Middle Ages. The city was in any case already significant enough to be the seat of a
diocese, mentioned by
Pope Gregory the Great in 591. The city was then further north than the location chosen later by the
Genoese - in the location of the existing quarters of
Castel Vecchio and
Sainte-Lucie. The earliest certain written record of a settlement at Ajaccio with a name ancestral to its name was the exhortation in Epistle 77 written in 601AD by
Gregory the Great to the Defensor Boniface, one of two known rectors of the early Corsican church, to tell him not to leave
Aléria and Adjacium without bishops. There is no earlier use of the term and Adjacium is not an attested
Latin word, which probably means that it is a Latinization of a word in some other language. The
Ravenna Cosmography of about 700 AD cites Agiation, which sometimes is taken as evidence of a prior Greek city, as -ion appears to be a Greek ending. There is, however, no evidence at all of a Greek presence on the west coast and the
Ionians at
Aléria on the east coast had been expelled by the Etruscans long before Roman domination.
Ptolemy, who must come the closest to representing indigenous names, lists the Lochra River just south of a feature he calls the "sandy shore" on the southwest coast. If the shore is the Campo dell'Oro (Place of Gold) the Lochra would seem to be the combined mouth of the
Gravona and
Prunelli Rivers, neither one of which sounds like Lochra. North of there was a Roman city, Ourchinion. The western coastline was so distorted, however, that it is impossible to say where Adjacium was; certainly, he would have known its name and location if he had had any first-hand knowledge of the island and if in fact it was there. Ptolemy's Ourchinion is further north than Ajaccio and does not have the same name. It could be
Sagone. The lack of correspondence between Ptolemaic and historical names known to be ancient has no defense except in the case of the two Roman colonies, Aleria and Mariana. In any case the population of the region must belong to Ptolemy's Tarabeni or Titiani people, neither of which are ever heard about again.
Archaeological evidence The population of the city throughout the centuries maintained an oral tradition that it had originally been
Roman. Travellers of the 19th century could point to the Hill of San Giovanni on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Ajaccio, which still had a cathedral said to have been the 6th-century seat of the
Bishop of Ajaccio. The Castello Vecchio ("old castle"), a ruined citadel, was believed to be Roman but turned out to have Gothic features. The hill was planted with vines. The farmers kept turning up artifacts and terracotta funerary urns that seemed to be Roman. In the 20th century, the hill was covered over with buildings and became a part of downtown Ajaccio. In 2005 construction plans for a lot on the hill offered the opportunity to the
National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) to excavate. They found the
baptistry of a 6th-century cathedral and large amounts of pottery dated to the 6th and 7th centuries AD; in other words, an early Christian town. A cemetery had been placed over the old church. In it was a single Roman grave covered over with roof tiles bearing short indecipherable inscriptions. The finds of the previous century had included Roman coins. This is the only evidence so far of a Roman city continuous with the early Christian one.
Medieval Genoese period It has been established that after the 8th century the city, like most other Corsican coastal communities, strongly declined and disappeared almost completely. Nevertheless, a castle and a cathedral were still in place in 1492 which last was not demolished until 1748. Towards the end of the 15th century, the
Genoese were eager to assert their dominance in the south of the island and decided to rebuild the city of Ajaccio. Several sites were considered: the
Pointe de la Parata (not chosen because it was too exposed to the wind), the ancient city (finally considered unsafe because of the proximity of the salt ponds), and finally the
Punta della Lechia which was finally selected. Work began on the town on 21 April 1492 south of the Christian village by the
Bank of Saint George at
Genoa, who sent Cristoforo of Gandini, an architect, to build it. He began with a castle on Capo di Bolo, around which he constructed residences for several hundred people. The new city was essentially a colony of Genoa. The Corsicans were restricted from the city for some years. Nevertheless, the town grew rapidly and became the administrative capital of the province of
Au Delà Des Monts (more or less the current
Corse-du-Sud).
Bastia remained the capital of the entire island. Although at first populated exclusively by the Genoese, the city slowly opened to the Corsicans while the Ajaccians, almost to the French conquest, were legally citizens of the
Republic of Genoa and were happy to distinguish themselves from the insular
paesani who lived mainly in
Borgu, a suburb outside the city walls (the current
rue Fesch was the main street).
Attachment to France Ajaccio was occupied from 1553 to 1559 by the French, but it again fell to the Genoese after the
Treaty of Cateau Cambresis in the latter year. Subsequently, the
Republic of Genoa was strong enough to keep Corsica until 1755, the year
Pasquale Paoli proclaimed the
Corsican Republic. Paoli took most of the island for the republic, but he was unable to force Genoese troops out of the citadels of
Saint-Florent,
Calvi, Ajaccio,
Bastia and
Algajola. Leaving them there, he went on to build the nation, while the Republic of Genoa was left to ponder prospects and solutions. Their ultimate solution was to
sell Corsica to France in 1768 and French troops of the
Ancien Régime replaced Genoese ones in the citadels, including Ajaccio's. Corsica was formally annexed to France in 1780.
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born as Napoleone di Buonaparte) was born at Ajaccio in the same year as the
Battle of Ponte Novu, 1769. The Buonaparte family at the time had a huge four-story home in town (now a museum known as
Maison Bonaparte) and a rarely used country home in the hills north of the city (now site of the
Arboretum des Milelli). The father of the family, attorney Carlo di Buonaparte, was secretary to
Pasquale Paoli during the
Corsican Republic. After the defeat of Paoli, the
Comte de Marbeuf began to meet with some leading Corsicans to outline the shape of the future and enlist their assistance. The Comte was among a delegation from Ajaccio in 1769, offered his loyalty and was appointed assessor. Napoleon was dispatched to Corsica as
Inspector General of Artillery to take the citadel of Ajaccio from the royalists who had held it since 1789. The Paolists combining with the royalists defeated the French in two pitched battles and Napoleon and his family went on the run, hiding by day, while the Paolists burned their estate. Napoleon and his mother, Laetitia, were taken out by ship in June 1793, by friends while two of the girls found refuge with other friends. They landed in
Toulon with only Napoleon's pay for their support. of
Napoleon The Bonapartes were back in Ajaccio in 1797 under the protection of General Napoleon. Soon after Napoleon became First Consul and then emperor, using his office to spread revolution throughout Europe. In 1811 he made Ajaccio the capital of the new Department of Corsica.
19th and 20th centuries In the 19th century Ajaccio became a winter resort of the high society of the time, especially for the English, in the same way as
Monaco,
Cannes, and
Nice. An
Anglican Church was even built. The first prison in France for children was built in Ajaccio in 1855: the Horticultural colony of Saint Anthony. It was a correctional colony for juvenile delinquents (from 8 to 20 years old), established under Article 10 of the Act of 5 August 1850. Nearly 1,200 children from all over France stayed there until 1866, when it was closed. Sixty percent of them perished, the victims of poor sanitation and malaria which infested the unhealthy areas that they were responsible to clean.
Contemporary history On 9 September 1943, the people of Ajaccio rose up against the Nazi occupiers and became the first French town to be liberated from the domination of the Germans. General
Charles de Gaulle went to Ajaccio on 8 October 1943 and said: "We owe it to the field of battle the lesson of the page of history that was written in French Corsica. Corsica to her fortune and honour is the first morsel of France to be liberated; which was done intentionally and willingly, in the light of its liberation, this demonstrates that these are the intentions and the will of the whole nation." Throughout this period, no Jew was executed or deported from Corsica through the protection afforded by its people and its government. This event now allows Corsica to aspire to the title "
Righteous Among the Nations", as no French region except for the commune
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in
Haute-Loire carries this title. Their case is being investigated . Since the middle of the 20th century, Ajaccio has seen significant development. The city has seen population growth and considerable
urban sprawl. Today Ajaccio is the capital of Corsica and the main town of the island and seeks to establish itself as a true regional centre. Ajaccio was a hotspot for violence during the
violent unrest in March 2022. ==Economy==