Visit Bonifacio

Bonifacio tourism

Bonifaciolocated in the far south of Corsicais the southernmost commune in mainland France. To the south, the Bouches de Bonifacio separate the Corsica of Italian Sardinia.

The town has a port and a citadel. The citadel is built on a headland overlooking the sea by a cliff which is a "vein" of limestone, a rock that is quite rare in Europe. Corsica whose soil tends to be granite. The cape is 1,600 metres long and 100 metres wide.

In the limestone rock that lines the road before entering Bonifacio was discovered on Lady of Bonifaciothe ancestor of corsicanIt is in perfect condition thanks to the neutral pH of the limestone. This skeleton, dating from 6572 BC, can be seen in the Levie museum.

BonifacioWith its chequered past, the town was founded in the 9th century by a count by the name of Boniface.

If you walk along the quayside as far as the chapel of St Erasme, and then take the climb up to the chapel of St Roch, you will begin to discover the limestone millefeuille that are the cliffs of Bonifacio.

The small chapel of St Roch was built on the site where the remains of the last victim of the plague epidemic that ravaged the town in the Middle Ages were found.

Go up to the Porte de Gênes (Genoa Gate) cut into the ramparts: this was the only access to the town until 1854 and faces the Bastion de France. A veritable fortress, it must have been difficult to approach without being invited, especially as the gate is doubly guarded by "loopholes".

The trump card of Bonifacio is the intelligence with which this town was built: everything was thought out with a view to giving it a strategic advantage against possible attacks or sieges: how to supply it, how to live in it... to do this go to the church: on each side, buttresses testify to the need to counter the thrusts exerted by the walls of the building and therefore to reinforce the walls. Pipes were also dug to channel rainwater collected from the roofs to a cistern hidden beneath the church... clever! Today, it serves as an auditorium.

Another aspect of this way of life, where basic needs had to be taken care of, was grain storage: the silos. Each house also had its own store. The staircases in the dwellings are just as interesting: they are a single flight and have a history: you have to go back to the time when the town was just trying to protect itself. The doors were virtually impenetrable: there were no doors on the ground floor, and the houses were accessed by a ladder that you then climbed up behind you...

Where to stay in Bonifacio on holiday

Hotel in Bonifacio

Bonifacio has 25 hotels in the village with different price ranges. Here is a selection of the three best rated hotels, you can click on the images to book one of the hotels or click on the button below to see the other 22:

House Swap Bonifacio Home Exchange

It's hard to find a holiday rental on the cliffs of Bonifacio but, rest assured, there are plenty just a few metres away in the village. Here is a list of the three best holiday rentals in Bonifacio (click on the image to see availability or to see others):

Things to see and do in Bonifacio

Old town of Bonifacio from the top of the cliffs

Here, all you have to do is walk along the Bonifacio cliffs to the old town and observe the impressive sheer drop of a good fifty metres above the sea... the view stretches all the way to Sardinia!

The mouths of Bonifacio

It is an arm of the sea classified as a nature reserve which regulates fishing and shipping and protects the fauna and flora between the Corsica and Sardinia. This reserve stretches from the Moines archipelago to the Cerbicales towards Porto Vecchio.

The Lavezzi Islands

What hasn't been written about these places steeped in history and beauty... Have you heard of them? the history of the Lavezzi Islands ?

Here's the story: Captain Gabriel Auguste Jugan, commander of the Semillante, set sail from Toulon on 14 February 1855 with 350 crew and 400 soldiers on board. The next day, they were caught in a terrible storm and hit a sec (a rock just above the water's surface) on the Lavezzi islands, where they all perished!

A cemetery was set up on the spot, which you can see below. Here is what you can read on the plaque where the captain's mother wrote her last letter to him: "350 crewmen and 400 servicemen surround their unfortunate captain in this field of rest... pray for them...". If you go and visit it, you'll feel all the shivers I can't describe here...

King of Aragon's staircase

Carved by man directly from Made of limestone and 189 steps, this staircase is said to have been dug in just one night by the troops of the King of Aragon during the siege of Bonifacio in 1420.

More likely dug over a longer period of time by Franciscan monks to access a source of drinking water at the bottom of the staircase.

San Franzé marine cemeterychapels of the ancient families of Bonifacio.

Churches in Bonifacio:

• Holy Cross (Santa Cruggi)
• Saint-Francois (san Franzé)
• Saint-Erasme (San Teramu)
• Saint-Dominique,
• Saint-Jean-Baptiste,
• Sainte-Marie Majeure,
• Saint-Roch (San Rocu)
• chapelle Sainte-Réparata (Santa Réparata) 9th century chapel

Beaches in Bonifacio :

• Sutta Roca,
• Maora,
• Piantarella,
• Tonnara,
• Paragan,
• Canetto,
• Petit-Sperone,
• Grand-Sperone,
• Rondinara.

Discover more Corsica beaches here.

[alert-success]Office Municipal du Tourisme de Bonifacio – Haute-ville de Bonifacio :

2, rue Fred Scamaroni BP506
20169 Bonifacio

Téléphone : 04 95 73 11 88 – Télécopie : 04 95 73 14 97[/alert-success]