Old Town

Corsica


Île Rousse’s delightful old town centres on tree-shaded place Paoli, with its daily food market, designed to resemble a Greek temple, alongside.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Corsica attractions

1. Promenade de la Marinella

0.08 MILES

This coastal promenade follows the seafront east from Île Rousse. The beach right by the town centre is actually very pleasant, with fine broad sand, but…

2. Île de la Pietra

0.62 MILES

Low, rocky Île de la Pietra, the ‘russet island’ that gave Île Rousse its name, is a pleasant 15-minute stroll from the centre, across a short causeway…

3. Parc de Saleccia

2.2 MILES

Visitors to these landscaped gardens, 4km east towards Bastia, can admire the flora of Corsica – the tough plants of the maquis, pines, myrtles and fig…

4. Citadel

10.16 MILES

Crowning a rocky headland, Calvi’s massive citadel was fortified by Corsica’s Genoese rulers from the 12th century onwards, and has fended off everyone…

5. Plage de Calvi

10.5 MILES

Sun worshippers don't have far to stroll. Backed by a grove of pine trees, Calvi’s stellar white-sand beach curves eastwards for 4.5km around the Golfe de…

6. Santa Maria Assunta

19.25 MILES

The remarkable Romanesque church of Santa Maria Assunta, 800m inland and known as ‘Cathedral of the Nebbio’, dates from 1140, when Corsica was under Pisan…

7. Tour de Nonza

23.1 MILES

Atop a footpath that winds up between the rocks opposite the church, the stark Tour de Nonza is an 18th-century structure erected on the ruins of a…

8. Église Ste-Julie

23.16 MILES

It’s worth looking inside Nonza’s dramatic orange-and-ochre church, which looms above the tiny village square, to admire its polychrome marble altar,…