Casa Buonaparte is the ancestral home of the Bonaparte

Bonaparte

The House of Bonaparte is an imperial and royal European dynasty founded by Napoleon I of France in 1804, a French military leader who rose to notability out of the French Revolution and transformed the French Republic into the First French Empire within five years of his coup d'état...

 family. It is located on the Rue Saint-Charles in Ajaccio

Ajaccio

Ajaccio , is a commune on the island of Corsica in France. It is the capital and largest city of the region of Corsica and the prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud....

 on the island of Corsica

Corsica

Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

. The house was almost continuously owned by members of the family from 1682 to 1923.

History

Napoleon Bonaparte's great-great grandfather Giuseppe Buonaparte first moved into the Casa Buonaparte in 1682. Originally, the house was partitioned between different families: however, after Giuseppe married Maria Colonna di Bozzi who owned a portion of the house, he purchased the remaining sections. The house was later expanded and re-decorated by Carlo Buonaparte

Carlo Buonaparte

Carlo Maria Buonaparte was a Corsican lawyer and politician who briefly served as a personal assistant of the revolutionary leader Pasquale Paoli and eventually rose to become Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI...

 after his marriage to Maria Letizia Ramolino. With the exception of Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily , and later King of Spain...

, all of their children were born in the Casa Buonaparte.

Eight years after Carlo Bonaparte's death in 1785, the family came into conflict with the increasingly reactionary nationalist leader, Pasquale Paoli

Pasquale Paoli

Filippo Antonio Pasquale di Paoli , was a Corsican patriot and leader, the president of the Executive Council of the General Diet of the People of Corsica...

 and was forced to flee to the French mainland. Paoli's followers looted and burned much of the Casa Buonaparte. After the arrival of Admiral Samuel Hood

Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood

Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood was a British Admiral known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars...

, British officers were also billeted there. According to legend, Hudson Lowe

Hudson Lowe

Sir Hudson Lowe KCB, GCMG was an Anglo-Irish soldier and colonial administrator who is best known for his time as Governor of St Helena where he was the "gaoler" of Napoleon Bonaparte.-Early life and career:...

 lived there briefly: however, it is unknown if this is true.

After the withdrawal of British troops from Corsica in 1797, the Bonaparte family returned to the Casa Buonaparte and began repairing and remodeling it with funds provided by the Directory

French Directory

The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...

.

When the Bonaparte family left Corsica again in 1799, they left the house in the care of Napoleon's wet-nurse, Camilla Ilari. Napoleon later bequeathed the house to his mother's cousin, André Ramolino, who gave his own house to Camilla in exchange. Later, first Maria and than Joseph took possession of the house. In 1852, Joseph's daughter Zénaïde

Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte

Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, Princess of Canino and Musignano was the elder daughter of Joseph Bonaparte and Julie Clary, and the wife of Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who was also her cousin...

 gave the Casa Buonaparte to Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie. Eugénie refurbished and expanded the house in order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Napoleon's birth. She later passed the house to Prince Victor Napoleon who donated the house to the Italian government. In 1967, the house was made into a museum and declared a national museum.