The main gate into Palais Fesch with the central museum of fine arts in Ajaccio on Corsica.

© Rafal Michal Gadomski/Shutterstock

Palais Fesch – Musée des Beaux-Arts

Ajaccio


Established by Napoléon’s uncle, cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763–1839), Ajaccio’s superb art museum holds the largest French collection of Italian paintings outside the Louvre. Masterpieces by Titian, Fra Bartolomeo, Veronese, Bellini and Botticelli – look out for his Vierge à l’Enfant Soutenu par un Ange (Mother and Child Supported by an Angel) – are complemented by temporary exhibitions. Several rooms are devoted to Napoléon and his family, with one unlikely painting showing Napoléon atop a dromedary.