Cork ex-pats are seeking homes in the city's affluent hillside

Property Focus on Montenotte, St Luke's and Tivoli

St Luke's Cross. The area was a very popular residential choice for the merchant classes.

To Corkonians, Montenotte is an affluent hillside city area with a high number of large period houses — but to Europeans, it’s the Italian location of an 18th Century battle where Napoleonic forces had a famous victory over Austria.

It’s not immediately obvious as to why the city authorities or the wealthy elites who began building substantial homes on the hillside above Cork in the 1800s called this area after a French military victory. It could be that they just liked the sound of the name - which over 200 years later is seen by many of its citizens as belonging to Cork.