AJACCIO  , the

capital of Corsica, on the west coast of the island, 210 M . S.E. of Marseilles . Pop . (1906) 19,021 . Ajaccio occupies a sheltered position at the foot of wooded hills on the northern shore of the Gulf of Ajaccio . The harbour, lying to the east of the town, is protected on the south by a peninsula which carries the citadel and terminates in the Citadel jetty; to the south-west of this peninsula lies the Place Bonaparte, a quarter frequented chiefly by winter visitors attracted by the mild climate of the town . Apart from one or two fine thorough-fares converging to the Place Bonaparte, the streets are mean and narrow and the town has a deserted appearance . The house in which Napoleon I, was born in 1769 is preserved, and his associations with the town are everywhere emphasized by street-names and statues . The other buildings, including the cathedral of the 16th century, are of little interest . The town is the seat of a bishopric dating at least from the 7th century and of a prefect . It has tribunals of first instance and of com-merce, training colleges, a communal college, a museum and a library; the three latter are established in the Palais Fesch, founded by Cardinal Fesch, who was born at Ajaccio in 1763 . Ajaccio has small manufactures of cigars and macaroni and similar products, and carries on shipbuilding, sardine-fishing and coral-fishing .

Its exports include

timber, citrons, skins, chestnuts and gallic acid . The port is accessible by the largest ships, but its accommodation is indifferent . In 1904 there entered 603 vessels with a tonnage of 202,980, and cleared 6o8 vessels with a tonnage of 202,502 . The preseht town of Ajaccio lies about two miles to the south of its original site, from which it was transferred by the Genoese in 1492 . Occupied from 1553 to 1559 by the French, it again fell to the Genoese after the treaty of Cateau Cambresis in the latter year . The town finally passed to the French in 1768 . Since 1810 it has been capital of the department of Corsica .