Corte - San Giovanni Battista

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 under the influence of the Republic of Pisa, later it belonged to Genua for centuries. In 1755 after a long fight for independence from Genoa the independent Corsican Republic was proclaimed, but in 1769, when the island was conquered by France. As the areas near the coast over centuries have been threatened by attacks and raids of pirates many old hamlets and dwellings are wide inland, high in the mountains.


The ruins of San Giovanni Battista, a three-nave pre-Romanesque church from the 9th century. For a long time this church has been reduced to its only apse. Excavations in the 1950s uncovered the base of the walls, the original floor and verified that the church plan was three naves separated by two rows of pillars. Located next to it stands (behind the tree) a better preserved baptistery from the same time.