Stopover in Sète 2024 and Corsica, the start of a great History

Corsicans and Sétois sealed the invitation on the Abeille Méditerranée in the port of Ajaccio. HA.

A delegation from Escale à Sète went to the Isle of Beauty this week for the officialization by the Corsican Community of the spotlight of the island's maritime heritage during the 2024 edition but not only.

In the exceptional mildness of early January 2024, strong and crucial meetings took place in Ajaccio for Escale à Sète 2024 but also for the Mediterranean maritime heritage in the broad sense. During a press conference in the very symbolic Villa Pietri, Antonia Luciani, the executive councilor of the Corsican community, in charge of culture and heritage, welcomed with "immense pride& quot; the proposal of the Sète festival to be the guest of honor at the event which attracts some 400,000 people during the Easter weekend on the Singulière Island.

"Living heritage"

An opportunity first of all for the Corsicans to "reappropriate this heritage", she declared alongside Pierre-Jean Campocasso, the community's heritage director, researcher, sailor and great enthusiast of maritime culture. "Heritage too little known outside and of the Corsicans themselves, while it extends its arms to us", she continued. For Wolfgang Idiri, the director of Escale in Sète, who came to meet local stakeholders, notably the industrial tribunal of Ajaccio fishermen and its first industrial tribunal Xavier d&#39 ;Orazio is a "living heritage" and endowed with a great obvious cultural interest with concrete links with the Sétois, which guided the Corsican choice.

Antonia Luciani, executive advisor in charge of culture and heritage of the Corsican Community, announced an ambitious cultural project in collaboration with Escale à Sète. HA.

Feluccas still work boats in Corsica

Beyond a spotlight during the biggest festival of maritime traditions in Corsica with conferences on the history of pirates and corsairs of the Mediterranean, the presence of music groups and of sea shanties, workshops on traditions and know-how of local artisanal fishing which is still practiced in wooden feluccas (two boats will be exhibited in the village), it was established in Ajaccio &quot “the starting point of a collaboration that will be sustained over time,” noted Antonia Luciani. With a charter of demanding values ​​in terms of promoting maritime heritage, Escale à Sète will thus provide valuable assistance for the conservation and protection of traditional Corsican fishing boats but also of its intangible corpus.&nbsp ;

Raymond Dublanc, co-president of Escale and marine carpenter with a passion for history, got down to it this week with his friend, also a marine carpenter, from Sétois Robert Contreras, in helping Ajaccian fishermen with the renovation of their boats in dry dock in the port's careening area. This trade has completely disappeared on the island. "This exchange is beautiful, what is happening with the Sétois is priceless", confided to us the first industrial tribunal, Xavier d&#39 ;Orazio, eager to show the Escale public the maritime traditions of the Isle of Beauty. 

The Sète marine carpenters, Robert Contreras and Raymond Dublanc came to lend a hand to the Corsican fishermen (in the center Xavier d'Orazio, the first industrial tribunal of Ajaccio) who still practice fishing in felucca or pointed. HA.