Lucciana - San Parteo

The island of Corsica is one of the 18 regions of France. It was colonized the Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Etruscans and the Romans. After the Roman empire collapsed, Corsica got invaded by the Vandals and the Ostrogoths. For a short while the island belonged to the Byzantine Empire, then the Franks granted the island to the Pope, in the early 11th century Pisa and Genoa together freed the island from the threat of Arab invasion. The island came, just like neighbouring Sardinia, under the influence of the Republic of Pisa, later it belonged to Genua for centuries. In 1729 the Corsican fight for independence from Genoa began. After 26 years of struggle the independent Corsican Republic was proclaimed in 1755, but in 1769, when the island was conquered by France.

San Parteo is just west of "La Canonica " (see previous uploads) and so once in the ancient city of Mariana, founded by Gaius Marius in 93 BC as a veteran colony.
The church was erected in the center of a "pagan" cemetery, reused already in Paleochristian times. It was built within the 11th and 12th century replacing a sanctuary, erected over the relics of San Parteo and his companions. A legend tells, that they were martyred by Vandals in Northern Africa and were brough to Mariana by exiles from there.

Today the Pisan style basilica is located exactly in the air corridor of the Bastia airport.