Crowning rocky promontories and clifftops from Cap Corse to Bonifacio, the 91 crumbling Genoese watchtowers that punctuate the Corsican coast have become emblematic of the island's picture-postcard tranquillity. Yet they date from an era when these shores were among the most troubled in Europe. During the fifteenth century, Saracen pirates from North Africa began to menace the coastal villages and became so common that many Corsicans fled the coast altogether, retreating to villages in the hills. To protect those that remained, as well as their threatened maritime trade, the Genoese erected a chain of watchtowers, or torri, at strategic points on the island. They were paid for by local villagers and staffed by watchmen whose job it was to signal the approach of any unexpected ships by lighting a fire on the crenellated rampart at the top of the tower. In this way, it was possible to alert the entire island in a single hour.Piracy more or less died out by the end of Genoese rule, but the torri remained in use long after, proving particularly effective during the Anglo-Corsican invasions of the late eighteenth century. The British were so impressed with the system that they erected similar structures along the south coast of England and Ireland to warn of attacks by the French. Named after the first Genoese watchtower ever built in Corsica – on the Pointe de Martella, protecting the port of St-Florent and the Nebbio – these Martello towers were later used as lookouts in World War II.
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