can be entered only by very small boats. In this lake is an island, where there is good hunting for wild boar. This place is called the island. There are also two other small islands where fishermen stay: one is called Ischia nova which became famous in the recent wars and the other is called Ischia Vacchia. There is fishing in this lake for cephalic (cefalu or mazzardi), mullet (muggini), and other fish that make excellent Botargo. These fish and eels are taken in large quantities and serve as ordinary food for the inhabitants of Bastia, not to mention the fish that comes from the pièves of Orto, Mariana and Mercurio. Then comes the Port of Lo Pino then the Gulf of Bastia, which is called Portocardo by the sailors. There is then the Ruisseau de S. Nicolas, then successively the Port of Toga, Grigione, the port and Ruisseau di Pietranera where there is a tower." – Agostino Giustiniani in Description of Corsica, translation by Lucien Auguste Letteron in History of Corsica. The Genoese era The Genoese soon felt the need to protect Bastia from invasions coming from the sea and began to build a bastiglia (moat) and a citadel in the time of governor Leonello Lomellini. Over time, the Bastiglia (Bastia) has grown, become prosperous, and become more important than Cardo. Its history is in its "bastiglia" or citadel which was originally a walled city. Here it was the sea and the mountains that determined the location of habitations as well as the relief of the island. Bastia was the capital at the time of the Genoese domination. It spread to the slopes later, drawn toward the water in the Place Saint-Nicolas. Created by the Genoese patrician Leonello Lomellini in 1353 to liaise with Genoa, the city originated on the roack where a tower was built (a bastiglia, hence its name) and, a hundred years later, was surrounded by walls. At the beginning of the 18th century, many improvements were made in the Punta district, where many shops were built. Bastia and the whole island came under French military domination on 8 May 1769. In 1794, during a war with Revolutionary France, British troops under Admiral Nelson and Lieutenant-General David Dundas briefly captured Bastia. In 1848 Bastia took 44 hectares from Ville-di-Pietrabugno. Contemporary period Bastia suffered much damage during the Second World War. Nevertheless Corsica was the first department