BALADE ANCIEN PÉNITENCIER DE COTI CHIAVARI

The Coti penitentiary is a picturesque site with an undeniably harsh past. The penitentiary was founded in 1855, and its ruins are located halfway between Verghia and Coti Chiavari on a plateau with a breathtaking view over the Gulf of Ajaccio. In 1870, the
prisoners built a small dam holding back 24,000 m3 of water. Up to 800 prisoners were held here, and there was also a women's penitentiary, of which only a few ruins remain today.

You'll walk along a number of shady paths with superb avenues of hundred-year-old eucalyptus trees, planted by the prison administration as part of the reclamation of the state-owned estate. There are also well-tended cork oaks. The various buildings of the former penitentiary, commissioned by Napoleon, serve as landmarks, with the main path leading from the "men's penitentiary" (a vast renovated building) to the "women's penitentiary", also known as Laticapso (reference IGN ruin). As you stroll along, you'll come across a vast cistern, small cemeteries and beautiful large rubble stone walls embedded in the undergrowth, poor remnants of the prisoners' forced labour.