So, we're in Calvi, on the northwest coast of Corsica. We can't stop raving about its amazingly beautiful conjunction of mountains, sea, and citadel, and we've taken far too many pictures...










Calvi, however, is not just picturesque. Historically, it's also very interesting. So... Quiz time!

What do you think: True or false?

1. Christopher Columbus was born in Calvi.
2. Don Juan's dad was born in Calvi.
3. Horatio Nelson lost his eye in Calvi.
4. Napoleon Bonaparte took refuge in Calvi after being forced to flee from Ajaccio.
5. Rasputin's killer spent time in Calvi.

OK? Fingers on buzzers?

Here are a few more pictures of the citadel, to stop you taking a squiz at the answers before you've finished deciding:






OK, the answers!

1. Christopher Columbus's birthplace -- FALSE

The claim is often made, and it's not as farfetched as it sounds. But it's almost certainly false. Dorothy Carrington, whose Granite Island I've been referring to regularly since I came across it in Ajaccio, says: "The arguments for Columbus's Calvi origins are unscientific and rejected by all serious historians, Corsicans and others; the most one can say is that he may conceivably have been a Genoese of Calvi but that there is no proof whatever that he was."





2. Don Juan's dad -- TRUE

This is a bit more complicated. No, it's way more complicated.

Partly, it's because there's confusion (and I'm quoting Carrington again) between the fictional Don Juan Temorio (who featured in a 1630 play by Spanish monk Tirso de Molina, the plot of which subsequently inspired Moliere, Byron, and many others), and a real person, Miguel Manara, who was nicknamed Don Juan by his contemporaries. Miguel Manara saw the play in 1641, and reportedly announced his intention of emulating Don Juan. And he was definitely the child of Corsican parents: Tomaso Manara of Calvi, and Jeronima Anfriani of Montemaggiore, a village about 14 km from here.

It's a fascinating (not to say disturbing) story, to which I will return at some point on The Velvet Cushion. TL;DR version: Manara did some truly terrible things, but eventually repented. He then joined the lay fraternity of Santa Caridad in Sevilla, where he overhauled the organization, was elected prior, and gave himself up to fighting illness and poverty until his death in 1679. And if you're saying: It's all very well to repent, but you can never actually undo the damage you've done -- well, you'd be right.




3. Nelson's eye -- TRUE

Yes, really. We all know how he was blind in one eye ("I see no ships," and all that). Well, that eye went wonky right here in Calvi. But what on earth was he doing in Calvi?

It's down to Pascal Paoli again. Calvi -- loyal to the Genoese, remember -- wanted no truck with Paoli's independent Corsica. But in 1768, Genoa ceded the island to France (this is the trouble with being an island: people are always giving you away to other people). Paoli fled to England. But in 1794, aided by English reinforcements under the command of Admiral Nelson, Paoli began an attack in which Calvi was captured. An Anglo-Corsican kingdom briefly existed, before the island was retaken by the French in 1796.

According to Carrington, the British attacked from the undefended hilltops behind the town. First, they bombarded Mozella, "which still stands, bleak as an Arab fort, on an inland plateau facing the citadel". By mid-July it had fallen, "and Nelson, manning a battery on a ridge near the shore, had been wounded in the right eye by an explosion of stones". After that, the town was pummelled with shot and shells.






Antoine-Claude Valery reported in 1837 that Calvi had still not recovered from the siege to which it was subjected by the English in 1794. He's always a bit waspish, Valery, and at this point he continues: "Corsica needs to be visited by the English so that they can do something about its detestable and rare lodging places; certainly they'd have their work cut out."

4. Napoleon taking refuge -- TRUE

This continues the Ajaccio story of Napoleon fleeing Pascal Paoli, with whom he no longer saw eye to eye.




5. Rasputin's killer -- TRUE

Those of us whose knowledge of Rasputin's death pretty much derives from Boney M will be surprised to find that it's much more complicated (see here and here). Pretty much undeniable, however, is that Felix Yusupov had a lot to do with it.

The Calvi connection is this:

Dorothy Carrington tells us about her meeting with Tao Kerefoff (1901-73), one of the "White Russians" who had fought against the Russian Revolution: "He had been in Calvi for years; he ran a night club in the citadel." Originally from the Caucasus, he escaped from the Crimea after the White Russian regiment in which he served had been defeated. He reached Constantinople, and from there on, earned his living by dancing. He travelled to Paris, and on to New York.

This is where he met Felix Yusupov, "murderer of Rasputin and benefactor of innumerable exiled compatriots". The two returned to Paris, and in 1928, went to Calvi, where Yusupov had already bought property. They were accompanied by a party of musical Russian friends.

In 1935, Tao set up his bar in the chapel of the former bishop's palace, and married a Corsican. Carrington describes an eclectic clientele, and a frantic schedule: "Tao is imperturbable, working, sometimes, from sunset to sunset to the following sunrise (the record marathon was eleven hundred tango records played in uninterrupted succession)."

The bar still exists:





So how did you do? Five out of five?