Perched on a rock overlooking the sea, upper Bonifacio is made up of the medieval old town and the citadel. Created by Napoleon III, an access road skirts the Étendard bastion and dominates the Bonifacio gully. The old, narrow streets around the church of Sainte-Marie-Majeure are lined with tall houses linked by strange flying buttresses that are gutters taking rainwater into the water tanks. The upper town is at its most striking when seen from the sea.