Église San Michele de Murato

Murato

Standing alone on its grassy promontory at 475 metres above sea level, facing the Gulf of Saint-Florent, San Michele de Murato is the most striking apparition of Pisan Corsica. Its chequered walls mingle dark green serpentine taken from the bed of the Bevincu with white limestone from Saint-Florent: a two-tone effect so strange and so perfect that local tradition tells that angels built it in a single night. The building, raised in the 12th century by Pisan workshops, is covered in naive and enigmatic sculpture — quadrupeds, human figures, sheaves of wheat, interlace — in which people have sought to read symbols of justice and divine protection, without their meaning ever having been fathomed. In 1839, Prosper Mérimée, inspector of historic monuments on a tour of the island, declared it the most elegant and the prettiest church he had seen in Corsica, which earned it listing in the 19th century. The interior, a single timber-roofed nave closed by a semi-domed apse, preserves fragments of frescoes of the 14th–15th centuries. Dedicated to the archangel Saint Michael, weigher of souls and protector of high places, it served as a gathering place for the scattered communities of the Nebbio. Around it, three Genoese bridges linked by an 8 km walking loop extend the visit into a landscape of hills that has scarcely changed since the Middle Ages.

Getting there : About 1 km from the village of Murato, at the San Michele pass, by the D5; exterior freely accessible all year round, interior opened occasionally (enquire at the town hall). Coordinates of the church.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound