Église grecque Saint-Spyridon de Cargèse

Cargèse

The church of Saint Spyridon tells an odyssey unique in France: that of some 800 Greeks from Vitylo, in the Peloponnese, who in 1676 fled their homeland, hunted by the Turks, and settled at Paomia, in what was then Genoese Corsica. Driven out by the islanders in 1731 and exiled to Ajaccio, they were granted in 1776, at the instigation of the Comte de Marbeuf, governor of the island, the newly founded village of Cargèse. From 1854 to 1872 their descendants raised this neo-Gothic church with a single nave, whose wholly Byzantine interior houses a wooden iconostasis dated 1886 and four precious icons brought from Vitylo during the exodus of 1676; frescoes completed the decoration between 1987 and 2001. A Greek Catholic church of the Byzantine rite, Saint Spyridon keeps alive the Divine Liturgy sung in Greek, a few steps from the Latin church that faces it — a face-to-face that has become the symbol of the village's twofold soul, Greek and Corsican. The building was listed as a historic monument by decree of 30 June 1990. Every year, the traditions of the Eastern rite, notably the Easter celebrations, draw to Cargèse the faithful and the curious, who come to see the last Greek parish in Corsica alive.

Getting there : In the heart of the village of Cargèse; free to visit outside services, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated here in Greek, parking in the village

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

Ambient sound