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Initially planned to commemorate the 1870 war, this monument evokes an episode in the history of Corsica in the 18th century through its decorations.

A wish to build a great memorial to the dead of 1870 on the Place Saint Nicolas had been expressed since 1895. Various projects had been considered, and then given up. In 1912, the sculptors Louis Patriarche (1872-1955) and Jean-Mathieu Pekle (1868-1956), from Bastia, received an official order. Patriarche was charged to make the monumental statues and Pekle the bas-reliefs of the base. In 1913 an Art Nouveau model was presented, but the war broke out and the project was postponed. The Great War has taken a heavy toll on Corsica with 11,000 dead. The idea of a memorial became obvious. In 1920, the city officials got in touch again with Patriarche and Pekle and ordered the monument, which was finished in 1925. The group on the top is a reference to an episode in the history of Corsica in the 18th century. It symbolizes the patriotic sacrifice of Corsica by representing a widow who, having already lost two sons in the struggle for Corsican independence comes to offer her last boy to general Pascal Paoli. In the back of the base a bas relief by Jean-Mathieu Pekle represents a “voceru” (the traditional dirge improvised by a woman in front of the mortal remains of a man who has met a violent death). The original base, made of a big block of raw rock was judged undignified in that spot. In 1929 the decision was made to change it. An Art Déco architectural design was ordered to the architect Simon-François Fratacci, from Bastia. It was inaugurated in 1935.

Bastia

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