Corte is a very small town whose centre effectively consists of one street, cours Paoli, which runs from place Paoli, at the southern end, a tourist-friendly zone packed with cafés, restaurants and market stalls, to place du Duc-de-Padoue, an elegant square of fin-de-siècle buildings.The old ville haute is next to the cours Paoli, reached by climbing one of the cobbled ramps on the west side of the street or by taking the steep rue Scoliscia from place Paoli. Place Gaffori, the hub of the ville haute, is dominated by a statue of General Gian' Pietru Gaffori pointing vigorously towards the church. On its base a bas-relief depicts the siege of the Gaffori house by the Genoese, who attacked in 1750 when the general was out of town and his wife Faustina was left holding the fort. Their house stands right behind, and you can clearly make out the bullet marks made by the besiegers. Opposite the house is the church of the Annunciation, built in 1450 but restored in the seventeenth century. Inside, there's a delicately carved pulpit and a hideous wax statue of St Theophilus, patron of the town, on his deathbed. The saint's birthplace – behind the church in place Théophile – is marked by the Oratoire St-Théophile, a large arcaded building which commands a magnificent view across the gorges of Tavignano and Restonica. For the best view of the citadelle, follow the signs uphill to the viewing platform, aptly named the Belvédère, which faces the medieval tower, suspended high above the town on its pinnacle of rock and dwarfed by the immense crags behind. The platform also gives a wonderful view of the converging rivers and encircling forest – a summer bar adds to the attraction. Just above the place Gaffori, left of the gateway to the citadelle, stands the Palais National, a great, solid block of a mansion that's the sole example of Genoese civic architecture in Corte. Having served as the seat of Paoli's government for a while, it became the Università di Corsica in 1765, offering free education to all (Napoléon's father studied here). In the spirit of the Enlightenment, Franciscan monks taught the contemporary social thought of philosophers such as Rousseau and Montesquieu as well as traditional subjects like theology, mathematics and law. The university closed in 1769 when the French took over the island after the Treaty of Versailles, not to be resurrected until 1981. Today several modern buildings have been added, among them the Institut Universitaire d'Études Corses, dedicated to the study of Corsican history and culture.
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