Monte San Petrone et San Petru d'Accia

Pie-d'Orezza

The summit is a ridge of green schist from which one sees, in clear weather, the arm of Cap Corse to the east and the Balagne dominated by Monte Cinto to the west; a metal cross, a viewpoint indicator and a bas-relief of Saint Peter set into a low wall mark it. Below, at 1,070 m, two ruined buildings, a church and its presbytery, show an apse of local serpentine with green glints, whose inner arch bears a carved fish, symbol of the first Christians. In 596, Gregory the Great writes to Peter, bishop of Aléria, to consecrate 'at the place called Nigeuno, on the estate called Cellas Cupias', a property of the Roman Church, a basilica with baptistery in honour of the apostles Peter and Laurence, and to hasten to deposit the relics there. Corsican historians, including Bishop Foata, identify this Mount Nigeuno with the San Petrone and the basilica, opened for worship in 598 according to Foata alone, with the ruins of San Petru d'Accia; Wikipedia, which cites the letter after Xavier Poli (1907), recalls that no archaeological evidence confirms this identification, but Geneviève Moracchini-Mazel does date the building to the late 6th or early 7th century. The place became the seat of the tiny bishopric of Accia, created in 824 according to Wikipedia and united to Mariana by Pius IV in 1563. The chapel of San Petru, raised in the 17th century on the foundations of the presbytery, keeps the mountain's dedication alive.

Wikipédia — Monte San Petrone ↗

Getting there : From Ponte-Leccia, the D 71 via Morosaglia climbs to the Col de Prato (985 m), where a sign indicates the San Petrone path; allow about three hours of ascent for six kilometres and 800 m of climbing, five hours there and back, on a path without technical difficulty but long, to be reserved for days without snow or fog. The ruins of San Petru d'Accia are reached in about twenty minutes' walk from the col (time to be checked), on the same slope. Another path starts from Campodonico, a hamlet of Pie-d'Orezza.

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

Ambient sound