Tour de Mortella
| Tower of Mortella | |
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Native name Corsican: Torra di Mortella |
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| Location | Saint-Florent, Haute-Corse |
| Coordinates | 42°42′54″N 9°15′25″E / 42.71500°N 9.25694°ECoordinates: 42°42′54″N 9°15′25″E / 42.71500°N 9.25694°E |
| Built | 1563-1564 |
| Architect | Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino |
| Designated | 1991 |
| Reference no. | PA00099279 |
 Location of Tower of Mortella in Corsica
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The Tower of Mortella (Corsican: Torra di Mortella) is a ruined Genoese tower on the Corsica, located on the coast near Punta Mortella (Myrtle Point) in the commune of Saint-Florent, Haute-Corse. It was a progenitor of the numerous Martello towers the British built in the 19th century throughout their empire.
The Italian architect Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino designed the Tour de Mortella and Colonel Giorgio Doria directed the construction between 1563 and 1564. It was one of a series of coastal defences constructed by the Republic of Genoa between 1530 and 1620 to stem attacks by Barbary pirates.
On 7 February 1794, two British warships, HMS Fortitude (74 guns) and HMS Juno (32 guns), unsuccessfully attacked the tower at Mortella Point; the tower eventually fell to land-based forces under Major-General David Dundas and Lieutenant-General John Moore after two days of heavy fighting.
Late in the previous year, the tower's French defenders had abandoned the tower after HMS Lowestoffe (32 guns) had fired two broadsides at it. Then the French were easily able to dislodge the garrison of Corsican patriots that had replaced them. Still, the British were impressed by the effectiveness of the tower when properly supplied and defended and copied the design. However, they misspelled the name as "Martello" rather than "Mortella". When the British withdrew from Corsica in 1796, they blew up the tower, leaving it in an unusable state.
The ruined tower was listed as one of the official Historical Monuments of France in 1991. The database incorrectly gives the date of construction as 1553-1554. This earlier date is when Spanish and Genoese troops led by Admiral Andrea Doria besieged the French forces occupying the port of Saint-Florent after the Franco-Turkish invasion of the island.
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