Campagne Bonifacienne Pierre Seche Nature Bonifacio

Atypical landscapesDry stone, Genoese paths and baracun populate the countryside

Rural landscapes: discover Bonifacia’s countryside

We tend to spontaneously associate Bonifacio with its dreamy beaches and coves. A logical idea, but one that overlooks Bonifacio’s countryside, rich in the people who have shaped it over the centuries. Overlooking a limestone coastline, it reveals forgotten treasures that have enabled the inhabitants to live and survive in difficult times. It’s also a heritage that dates back to the Genoese era, with paths that take you back in time to a distant or more recent past. A must-see!

Mur Bonifacien Pierre Seche Tramizi Chemin Campagne Bonifacio

Tame the countryside

If you’ve spent even an hour in the upper town, you’ll have noticed that the buildings are centuries old. Imagine, then, that the people who lived in Bonifacio in those days were surrounded by nothing but luxuriant nature, sometimes welcoming, sometimes difficult to get to grips with on a daily basis. So the people of Bonifacio tried to tame it, to make the most of what it had to offer. They planted gardens, built paths, low walls and shelters. Bonifacio’s rural landscapes tell the story of the peasants who shaped the town and its way of life.

Paths that tell the story

If you want to discover rural life in Bonifacio, the best place to go is the Piali, the part of the commune that stretches beyond the town towards the Testa Ventilègne, in dense, leafy vegetation dotted with little paths. Some of these were laid out as early as the Middle Ages, and are easily recognized by their stone construction. They offer a timeless way to explore the countryside in its entirety, and to understand how it was organized by the peasants who went there every day: they rarely slept outside the town, for fear of unpleasant encounters.

Citadelle Piali Nature Vegetation Bonifacio

Campagne Piali Nature Rocher Citadelle Arriere Plan Bonifacio

The most beautiful view

This opinion is totally subjective and can certainly be contradicted: to get an overall idea of Piali, the best viewpoint is undoubtedly from La Trinité. From the huge rocks in front of the hermitage, you can see the whole countryside and the town in the distance. A magical view.

Stones create baracun

Our rural heritage includes some remarkable buildings. Baracun are uninhabited shelters, mostly located on Bonifacio’s granite plateau. Most date from the 18th or 19th century, although some are older. These strange dry-stone huts, rather rustic and basic in design, served primarily as sheds in which Bonifacians stored their tools. Occasionally, the Pialinchi, who worked in the fields, used them as larders or to rest when they got too tired.

Their construction is quite remarkable, as the baracun are made exclusively of dry stone: no cement or mortar is used to consolidate the structures. Only the stones, laid out in a precise pattern, guarantee the shelter’s solidity and resistance to the passage of time. Some baracun have an external staircase, others a circular bench inside. Some are decorated with their date of construction on the lintel of the entrance or under a slab covering the top of the roof. Take a close look: it’s easy to imagine how they were used two or three centuries ago.

Ingenious ancestors

Bonifacio’s agro-pastoral history is rich in many buildings, but it also boasts a structuring architecture, that of the tramizi, these enclosing walls that can be up to four meters high and three meters wide, always made of dry stone, built in a slight arc to better withstand the winds that blow 300 days a year in Bonifacio. They are also used to shelter trees, particularly olive trees, from the strongest winds.

To make the most of the slopes in the countryside, the Pialinchi have built dry-stone terraces known as scarpi. Olive trees have been planted in the shelter of these terraces, and staircases have sometimes been added to make it even easier to reach them: scarpi can be two or three meters high, just as wide and three or four rows high. All the more reason to tire the calves.

Between vine and olive tree

A long agricultural tradition

As you may know, Bonifacio has long been a producer of olive oil, and even today there are winegrowers whose reputation is well established. They work in soil where you wouldn’t expect to see grapes growing, yet the limestone gives the fruit a unique taste. The tradition goes back a long way, probably well before the 18th century: some grape crushers, known as trogi in Bonifacian, could date back to the Pisan era, around the 10th and 11th centuries. An eternity!

Several dozen of these trogi are scattered across the Bonifacian countryside. It is estimated that there are between two and three hundred in all. A great way to brush up on your youngsters’ maths lessons, counting as you go…

The trogis have two square compartments. Most are open-air, although some have been covered with a vault, or even a rounded roof that makes them look like baracuns.

Did you know?

In the countryside, springs were not always so numerous or easily accessible. The baracun “hamlet” of Casila had a well for cattle, called a rivilin or cella in the Bonifacian language. Very few remain today, destroyed by the animals over the years.

An immense wealth

The easiest way to discover Bonifacia’s rural landscapes is to take the path leading to the Fazziò cove: You’ll catch a glimpse of most of the buildings that make up the commune’s rural heritage, telling the story of how the inhabitants lived, rich in their ability to tame these stones, these slopes, these trees… It’s a plunge two or three centuries back in time, a moment that will appeal to young and old alike, giving free rein to the imagination to rediscover the life of Bonifacio’s peasants.

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