Vallée de l’Ortolo, 20100 Sartène, in the south of Corsica, half an hour from Figari. Paul Canarelli decided in 1994 to “redonner vie à un ensemble de bergeries désertées” on land his Canarelli forebears had farmed. The estate runs to “2500 hectares” and gathers “une vingtaine de bergeries et demeures du XVIIème siècle”, “distantes parfois de plusieurs kilomètres”, nearly all with a private pool. It is this volume’s exception: a scattered estate let house by house, with a hotel at its farm.
The house
The estate credits its revival to “toute la passion et la volonté d’un homme, enfant du pays”, naming nobody; the luxury press dates the decision to 1994 and names Paul Canarelli, who set out to “redonner vie à un ensemble de bergeries désertées” on land farmed by “ancêtres Canarelli”. What was assembled is not a hotel in one building but “2500 hectares, un territoire, presque un pays”, holding “une vingtaine de bergeries et demeures du XVIIème siècle” — the regional tourism agency counts “20 bergeries et demeures restaurées du 17ème siècle”. The houses stand five to thirty minutes from the farm, and “Toutes ou presque offrent une piscine privative”.
The estate also has a long record in the courts. Documents cited by Corse Net Infos note “de multiples procédures judiciaires effectuées depuis 2005”, and a preliminary investigation covering 1996 to 2019 followed complaints by U Levante, ABCDE and France Nature Environnement over building in areas protected under the loi Littoral. In 2016 the Bastia appeal court convicted the estate of “destruction d’espèces animales et végétales protégées”. A judicial investigation followed in early 2021, and on 7 April 2023 Canarelli, Valérie Guilbert and the architect Stéphane Lucchini were placed under formal investigation. All three deny the allegations; Canarelli’s counsel says the case rests “exclusivement sur des infractions non établies à ce jour”.
What distinguishes it
It is not one house but about twenty, kilometres apart The estate gathers “une vingtaine de bergeries et demeures du XVIIème siècle”, which it says are “distantes parfois de plusieurs kilomètres”; Yonder puts them five to thirty minutes’ drive from the farm. A guest takes a whole house rather than a room in a building, and “Toutes ou presque offrent une piscine privative”.
The letting is by the house, and it can be by the night Journal du Luxe reports that it is “possible de réserver l’une des bergeries pour une nuitée ou pour une ou plusieurs semaines”, so the weekly villa term that defines most of this volume is the usual case here, not the only one. Yonder records that a bergerie is “généralement louée avec un service de chef à domicile et/ou de majordome”, which is how the estate turns a house into hotel service.
There is a hotel inside the estate, and it is let by the room Alongside the houses, Yonder counts nine rooms and suites at the Hôtel de la Ferme, among them the 85 square metre Aquedda suite with its own pool. The regional tourism agency gives “Nombre de chambres : 20” for the estate and “Nbre de personnes maxi : 80”. Murtoli is therefore only partly an exclusive-use estate: the bergeries are taken whole, the farm is taken by the room.
The revival has a date, a name and a claim of descent The estate’s own history page credits “toute la passion et la volonté d’un homme, enfant du pays” and names nobody. Journal du Luxe dates the decision to 1994 and names Paul Canarelli; Yonder notes the “ancêtres Canarelli qui cultivaient déjà ces terres”. The houses are 17th-century; their life as paid accommodation is three decades old.
The courts have been part of the estate’s record since 2005 Corse Net Infos cites documents referring to “de multiples procédures judiciaires effectuées depuis 2005”. In 2016 the Bastia appeal court convicted the estate of “destruction d’espèces animales et végétales protégées”, and on 7 April 2023 Paul Canarelli, Valérie Guilbert and the architect Stéphane Lucchini were placed under formal investigation over building without permits, breaches of the local plan and a golf course laid out without authorisation. All three deny the allegations.
A guest without a car will not get round a 2,500-hectare estate whose houses are kilometres from the restaurants. A guest who wants a lobby, a lift and neighbours will find a 17th-century shepherd’s house instead. The estate closes for part of the winter — “d’avril à décembre” by its own account, “d’avril à janvier” by the tourism agency’s — and anyone who needs the building history of their holiday to be uncontested should read the 2016 judgment and the 2023 charges first.
Signature rooms and dates
Competitive landscape
Sources
What the entry rests on, read 13 October 2026. Each reference records the facts it supports, so a disputed line can be traced to the account it came from.