Maison natale de Pascal Paoli

The museum of Pascal Paoli's birthplace is a museum dedicated to Pascal Paoli, located in Haute-Corse in the village of Morosaglia, in the hamlet of Stretta. Installed in the house where Paoli was born, it presents the life and work of the character, particularly through the furniture, objects and memories of the general and his government. Since 2012, it has been awarded the "Maison des Illustres" label.

The house where Pacal Paoli was born was given to the department of Corsica in 1889 by Jean-Baptiste Franceschini-Pietri, descendant of Maria Chiara Paoli, sister of Pascal Paoli, and private secretary of Napoleon III. The donation was accompanied by the condition that the oratory of the house receive the ashes of the general and that the floor be transformed into a museum. The translation of the ashes from the cemetery of the Catholic church of Saint Pancras in London took place on September 7, 1889, but the museum was not really opened until 1954 by Jean Leblanc, departmental inspector of museums and curator of the Musée Fesch in Ajaccio.

In 1976, with the bi-departmentalization, the house became the property of the department of Haute-Corse. Its state of deterioration led the general council to restore and refurbish the museum rooms between 1986 and 1991.

By the Notre law, since January 1, 2018, it is now integrated into the Heritage Department of the Collectivity of Corsica, which ensures the management of several heritage establishments of various kinds, including five museums labeled "Museum of France".

The building retains the traditional appearance of an 18th century house of note. It has a square floor plan with two floors and attic, is covered with slate tiles and has a rubble masonry structure. In 1975, the building was registered by the State as a Historic Monument.

The objects and memories of general Paoli were originally quite few because, on two occasions, in 1769 and 1796, knowing that his goods were going to be sequestered, Pascal Paoli had asked his close friends to shelter those he cared about the most, which had as a consequence to favor their dispersion. At the end of his life, he donated to his compatriots in exile all that they had taken, but he wished that the sword of honor offered by the king Frederic II, the saddle offered by the Bey of Tunis and various documents be deposited in the brotherhood of the village.

The museum's collections have been gradually enriched thanks to a number of donations and to the acquisition policy of the General Council. It has allowed the museum to acquire the bust of Paoli by John Flaxman, the full-length portrait painted by Benbridge, and a pair of pistols made in 1773 in London by John Fox Twigg. The portrait was commissioned by the Scotsman James Boswell, a great admirer of Paoli, to the American painter Henry Benbridge, whom he met in Rome. It represents Paoli at the battle of Ponte-Novo and was exhibited in London in 1769. In 2021, the museum acquired on the art market a retrospective portrait of Paoli, painted in miniature on porcelain by Sophie Liénard and made around 1840 by the Rihouet factory in Paris.