Haute ville

Christopher Columbus is said to have been born in Calvi around 1436 and died on May 20, 1506 in Valladolid.

This belief is based on a lively oral tradition in Corsica, passed down from generation to generation. The certainty of the explorer's Corsican origins remains firmly anchored there: he is said to have been born Colombo, at a time when Calvi was under Genoese domination.

Defenders of this thesis explain that Columbus would have deliberately concealed his Corsican origins, particularly from the powerful Spanish sovereigns who financed his expeditions. Indeed, in 1421, the inhabitants of Calvi had massacred an Aragonese garrison occupying the town, which could have compromised Spanish confidence in a navigator from that city.