The history of Chalet Canavaggio

Postcard (1929) -. Pierre-Paul Peretti

For more than a century now, Villa Canavaggio has dominated the village of Campo, in South Corsica. Built thanks to the fortunes amassed from trade in Haiti, the ruined building almost disappeared from the landscape but was ultimately saved in 2002 by a Belgian couple who turned it into a guest house.

The Canavaggio Castle is one of those very rare "House of Amricans" in South Corsica.

Dominique Herzet and his wife, both from Belgium, acquired the ruined house in 2002 and gave it a second life after Herculean work.

The history of the building is closely linked to that of its designer. Jules Canavaggio was born in Campo in 1870 into a family of farmers. His older brother would be the first to try the American adventure. First in the trade in Haiti, then on the Panama Canal where he will provide the workers with supplies. Young Jules quickly followed suit.

Back in Campo after making his fortune, Jules moved in with his Haitian wife and their 5 children. As a first step, he becomes deputy mayor. The magnificence of his residence underlies his new social status. In 1925, Jules Canavaggio was elected mayor of the village. He continued to travel regularly to the Americas for business, where he died in New York in 1945.

"Villa Canavaggio, a century of history", a report to discover by Caroline Ferrer

With Dominique Herzet, owner of Châtelet de Campo & Pierre-Claude Giansily, Art Historian

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