ALERIA

Aleria sits on a unique promontory, overlooking the Diana, El Sale and Urbinu lakes to the east, facing the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the River Tavignani to the north, providing the Corsi, the indigenous hunter-gatherers of the Neolithic period 8,000 years ago, with optimal living conditions. Later, in the first millennium BC, trade developed with neighbouring peoples. Etruscans, Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans were all able to contribute their skills and know-how, which enabled Alalia to flourish until its apogee at the time of Rome. Thanks to its proximity to the Diana pond, a natural harbour, the ancient city became one of the major strongholds in the Mediterranean. After the Vandals invaded and destroyed it in the 5th century, the city fell into a long slumber, with malaria infesting the Eastern Plain until the 20th century. Attempts by the Genoese to re-establish the town in the 16th and 17th centuries and to reclaim the plain in the 19th century were in vain. Thanks to the Americans, during the Second World War, insalubrity was eradicated. Aleria then experienced a revival of activity and a boom, assuming its vocation as the agricultural heart of the Eastern Plain and Corsica.