Corsica Pictures
Piana to Filitosa

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Travelling south from Porto/Piana to Ajaccio it's all downhill.

Before reaching the teeming streets of Ajaccio, Corsica's capital city, many travellers stop in clifftop Cargese, a lazy old resort town a few kilometres south of Piana which not only offers a relaxed tranquility but is also a mere two kilometres south of one of the finest beaches on the west coast, Plage de Pero, a large expanse of white sand served by a couple of bars. Another two klicks gets to Plage du Chiuni where windsurfing is particularly good.

The fine old town and Citadel of Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1769
and now trapped by an expanding mass of concrete fakery and steaming steel.

There's very little the bugcrew wish to say about Ajaccio except that we couldn't wait to get out of it. True the old town has some charm, but prices are eye-watering while both food and service quality are below par. And who on holiday wants to spend a couple of hours in heavy traffic for the pleasure of a quick Citadel walk and an over-priced meal?

Filitosa prehistoric site, with carved stone menhirs over 5,000 years old.

A few kilometres off the road from Ajaccio to Propriano is the well-organised and wonderfully atmospheric ancient site of Filitosa, one of several prehistoric places in Corsica.

The 'statue' menhirs classified as FIII, FIV, FI and FII. FV, the finest statue is at the entrance to the park.

Sea borne invaders arrived in Corsica from an easterly direction in 3,500 BC, displacing the local Neolithic farmers and creating the phallic, warrior menhirs, initially rather crudely but by 2,000 BC - during the bronze age - stonework skills developed along with their tools, as did living conditions on the site.
Around 200-100 BC the Romans occupied Corsica, and Filitosa fell out of common use.

The central monument embellished with several small statue-menhirs recovered from digs.

Filitosa was partly fortified by 1,000 BC, people started to live in stone huts and the site became a religious centre. At some point the religious cults destroyed most menhirs and re-employed them as wall fillers.

Local uncarved rocks clearly suggest human forms that presumably triggered the god-statue concept, probably after ingesting a few magic mushrooms.

Filitosa is only open Easter to October, 9 am to sunset and midday is supposed to be the best time for shadows to accentuate the menhir's reliefs.

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Corsica Pictures Piana to Filitosa

Corsica Pictures
Piana to Filitosa