View of La Pietra Island

L’Île-Rousse is an attractive town with buildings full of charm, but above all because of the Pietra Islands. These colorful rocky islands seem to guide the boats to the coast.
Here are all our tips on how to get to the La Pietra peninsula (now that there is a road) and climb up to the Genoese tower and the La Pietra lighthouse.

L’Île-Rousse got its name from the red porphyry rocks in front of the harbor entrance – the Île de la Pietra. This island is now connected to the island of Corsica by a causeway.

The region has been inhabited since the 5th to 3rd millennium BC. Around 1000 BC, the town of Agila existed there, which was dependent on the city of Tyros (Phoenicia).
The Romans maintained a base called Rubico Rocega at this location during their rule over Corsica until the 4th century AD. After that, the current urban area was almost uninhabited except for a few fishermen and farmers due to its proximity to the coast and the resulting vulnerability to enemy attacks. It was not until the 16th century that residents of the nearby town of Santa-Reparata-di-Balagna opened the first shops near the coast for trade with neighboring communities by sea.