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50 free Corsica trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Corsica trivia quiz covers the whole of the 'mountain in the sea': the geography (Monte Cinto, the Strait of Bonifacio, the Scandola reserve and the GR20, the toughest long-distance trail in Europe), the long history under Pisa and Genoa, Pasquale Paoli's short-lived republic and its 1755 constitution, the sale to France in 1768 and the birth of Napoleon in Ajaccio a year later. It also asks about the things visitors actually notice: the Moor's head flag and why its bandana moved, the coastal towers built against Barbary pirates, chestnut flour and brocciu cheese, the two departements, the metre-gauge railway, the football clubs of Bastia and Ajaccio, the Tour de Corse rally, and the nationalist conflict that ran from 1976 to the truces of 2014 and 2016. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's articles on Corsica, its towns, mountains and history, and each explanation adds one further fact. Good for travellers planning a trip, French geography revision, and pub quiz setters who want something beyond 'where was Napoleon born'.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Corsica ranks where in size among the islands of the Mediterranean?
Fourth
Only Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus are larger. Two-thirds of the island is a single mountain chain, hence its nickname 'mountain in the sea'.
Q 02Which city is the regional capital of Corsica?
Ajaccio
Bastia, in the north, is the island's second-largest town and its busiest ferry port.
Q 03Which future emperor was born in Corsica's capital in 1769?
Napoleon
He was born just one year after Genoa ceded the island to France; his birthplace, Maison Bonaparte, is now a museum.
Q 04Which republic ruled Corsica from 1284 until the island broke away in 1755?
Genoa
Genoese rule began after the naval Battle of Meloria in 1284 ended Pisan control of the island.
Q 05Which island lies immediately south of Corsica, across the Strait of Bonifacio?
Sardinia
The strait is only about 11 km wide at its narrowest point, and Sardinia was joined to Corsica for much of the Pleistocene.
Q 06What is the highest peak on Corsica?
Monte Cinto
It rises to 2,706 metres and is one of the most prominent peaks in Europe; the first recorded ascent was in 1882.
Q 07Who led the independent Corsican Republic proclaimed in 1755?
Pasquale Paoli
His constitution, ratified in November 1755, made Corsica a representative democracy; after defeat in 1769 he was exiled to Britain and died in London.
Q 08A German adventurer was briefly proclaimed King of Corsica in 1736. Who was he?
Theodor von Neuhoff
His reign lasted only months; by 1754 he was languishing in a debtors' prison in London.
Q 09To which French king did Genoa cede Corsica in 1768?
Louis XV
The island was pledged against debts Genoa had run up hiring French troops to fight the Corsican revolt; France annexed it outright in 1769.
Q 10Which famous Roman philosopher was exiled to Corsica?
Seneca
The Romans used the island as a place of exile and considered it backward, though it exported honey, wax, cheap wine and slaves.
Q 11How many departements make up Corsica?
Two
Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud were created in 1975; their collectivities were merged into a single territorial collectivity on 1 January 2018.
Q 12Before 1975, Corsica was a departement of which mainland French region?
Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur
That year the single departement was split into Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud.
Q 13What image appears on the flag of Corsica?
A Moor's head
Paoli adopted it in 1755 and had the bandana moved from over the eyes to the forehead to symbolise liberation from Genoa; the same head appears on Sardinia's flag.
Q 21Roughly how many days do most hikers take to complete the GR20?
About 15
Between 10,000 and 20,000 people walk it every year; the northern half is usually rated the harder because of its steep, rocky paths.
Q 22Which Corsican nature reserve, reachable only by boat, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
Scandola
It sits within the Parc Naturel Regional de Corse, created in 1972, and is reached by boat from Galeria or Porto.
Q 23Which endangered wild sheep, descended from archaic domestic flocks, lives in Corsica's mountains?
Mouflon
The Corsican red deer, once hunted to extinction on the island, was reintroduced from the surviving Sardinian population.
Q 14Why did the Corsican Republic's leader move the bandana on Corsica's flag from over the eyes to the forehead in 1755?
Liberation from Genoa
Earlier versions had it as a blindfold; between 1769 and 1789 Corsican patriots went back to the blindfolded version as a protest against French rule.
Q 15Which armed nationalist group announced itself with 21 attacks across Corsica on 5 May 1976?
FLNC
The National Liberation Front of Corsica modelled itself on Algeria's FLN; its largest faction only called a truce in 2014.
Q 16Which French prefect was assassinated in Corsica in 1998?
Claude Erignac
Yvan Colonna was jailed for the killing; his own murder by a prison inmate in 2022 set off two weeks of rioting on the island.
Q 17Which Corsican cheese, similar to ricotta, is the key ingredient in the cake fiadone?
Brocciu
It is made from goat or sheep whey and used fresh in everything from stuffed pasta (sturzapreti) to omelettes.
Q 18Which tree did the Genoese plant across Corsica on a large scale, transforming the islanders' diet?
Chestnut
A 1584 Genoese governor ordered every farmer to plant four trees a year; the resulting flour goes into pulenta castagnina and a bread said to stay fresh for two weeks.
Q 19The Genoese built a chain of coastal towers around Corsica to defend against whom?
Barbary pirates
The raiders came from North Africa; many of the round towers still stand and give Cap Corse its skyline.
Q 20What is the name of the famously tough long-distance hiking trail that runs the length of Corsica?
GR20
It runs about 180 km from Calenzana to Conca with 12,000 m of climbing, and is generally regarded as the hardest of all the GR routes.
Q 24Which large scavenging bird, also called the Lammergeier, is a famous resident of Corsica?
Bearded vulture
With the griffon vulture it acts as an environmental 'janitor', clearing carcasses that would otherwise spread disease.
Q 25Which predator was hunted out of Corsica by about 1700 after escaped tame animals formed a feral population?
Brown bear
The Corsican hare, despite its name, is not native either: it was brought over from southern Italy in the 1600s.
Q 26Which language was official in Corsica until 9 May 1859, when French replaced it?
Italian
Corsican itself is closely related to medieval Tuscan; only about 10% of the population now speak it natively.
Q 27The Corsican village of Cargese was founded in the 17th century by immigrants from which country?
Greece
Greek remained the village's traditional language, while Bonifacio kept a Ligurian dialect known as bunifazzinu.
Q 28How long is Corsica at its longest point?
183 km
It is 83 km across at its widest, with 1,000 km of coastline and more than 200 beaches.
Q 29Which Corsican weather station records the highest year-round average temperature in Metropolitan France?
Sari-Solenzara
Its 1981-2010 annual mean was 16.41 C, and the island soaks up around 2,715 hours of sunshine a year.
Q 30Which foreign power was invited in 1794 to help drive the French out of Corsica?
Britain
The result was the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, whose flag quartered the Moor's head with the British arms; the British withdrew in 1796.