Ls Îles Sanguinaires
Remarkable viewpoint / panorama / high point
On 22 March 2017, the Grand Site des Iles Sanguinaires et de la pointe de la Parata was awarded the "Grand Site de France" label. This label, awarded for 6 years by the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and the Sea, rewards the commitment of local actors to the preservation and sustainable management of the landscape heritage constituted by the Pointe de la Parata and the Iles Sanguinaires.
Above all, it is an exceptional natural site renowned for its flamboyant sunsets.
The Sanguinaires islands are an archipelago of four rocky islands of magmatic origin composed of a dark rock, diorite, and a lighter rock, a monzonitic granite.
Colonies of seabirds nest there in complete tranquillity; the Yellow-legged Gull, more rarely the Ashen Shearwater, the Black-headed Gull and Audouin's Gull
An original flora, composed of more than 150 species on Mezu Mare, the main island, some of which are rare or even absent from the rest of Corsica, including the spectacular arum mange mouche.
Les Îles Sanguinaires also have a rich and mysterious past.
Numerous travellers' accounts, one of the most famous of which is that of Alphonse Daudet in "Les lettres de mon moulin" (Letters from my Windmill), evoke traces of life in these fierce islands. Human presence dates back to the 16th century with the construction of a Genoese tower on the site of the current lighthouse.
In 1806 Mezu Mare became a health post with the construction of a lazaretto, now in ruins, intended for coral fishermen returning from Africa. The semaphore was put into service in 1865 and disarmed in 1955. The lighthouse was automated in 1985.
The archipelago was bought by the Corsican General Council in 1973.
Ideal
In couple
With family
Brands & labels
The Gulf of Ajaccio is full of wonders and if we had to make a ranking, the first place would certainly go to Les Îles Sanguinaires! [...] Sometimes close, sometimes far away, sometimes glowing or hidden in a thick fog, they offered me a thousand faces. Whoever sets eyes on this archipelago cannot but be touched by its wild and rare beauty.