Maison Bonaparte

About

Maison Bonaparte, in the old town of Ajaccio, Corsica, is the birthplace of Napoleon. The Bonaparte family gained half the house through a marriage dowry in 1682 and, through successive purchases, owned the whole property by 1766; Napoleon was born here on 15 August 1769 and spent his childhood in the house until leaving for mainland France in 1778. When the family fled Corsica in 1793 the house was looted, and in 1799 Napoleon stayed here with his staff on his return from Egypt. Prince Victor Napoleon offered the house to the French state in 1923; it was accepted and classified as a historic monument in 1924, and became a national museum in 1967, attached to the national museum of the Chateau de Malmaison. Its rooms display furniture and objects evoking the emperor's family in Corsica.