Section 01 · 6 entries
The Chain
Towers built to see each other. Every entry here states what the tower could see, because that is the only thing its siting was decided by.
- Tour de la Parata
- west of Ajaccio, guarding the gulf
- Tour de Porto
- at the head of the gulf of Porto
- Tour de Campomoro
- the largest of the chain
- Tour de Senetosa
- paired towers on the south-west cape
- Tour de Pinarellu
- east coast, watching the channel
- Tour de Santa Maria
- on the neck of Cap Corse
Surviving tower, plotted from recorded coordinatesDashed line: the relay order, north to south
Every entry in The Chain
- A message round the island in a nightEach tower was sited to see its neighbours, so a fire lit on one could be answered along the whole coast. The network is the point; any single tower is just a link.
- Siting by sightlineHeight, headland and horizon — the three things that decided where one went.
- The shape of a towerRound, battered, one raised doorway and a vaulted chamber. Why each of those is structural rather than decorative.
- The raised doorEntry above ground level, reached by a ladder that could be pulled up.
- The terraceThe working surface on top, and what was kept there.
- What a garrison wasTwo or three men, supplied irregularly, on a rota nobody enjoyed.
Elsewhere on the site