Cathédrale Sainte-Marie de Nebbio

Saint-Florent

According to tradition, it was after a victory over a Moorish king named Nugolone, in 817, that ‘the church called Santa Maria was made’ in the Nebbio: a foundation story that nothing confirms. The documents are later. A deed of 1176, copied into the cartulary of the charterhouse of Calci, is the first document to name the church clearly, already referred to in two deeds of 1138 and 1145; the present building, which some date to the years 1125–1140 and others to the 13th century, stands on the site of an early Christian basilica, away from the town of Saint-Florent. It belongs to the Pisan Romanesque art that marked the island in the time of the ‘Pisan peace’: a fine-grained white limestone, a central nave lined with square piers between two side aisles, a west front articulated by two storeys of blind arcading carried on pilasters. At the portal, beneath a double moulded arch, a monolithic lintel is carved with geometric motifs; the capitals framing it show a lion on the left and serpents on the right, and others on the facade show animals and stylised foliage. Repaired in the early 16th century, the church remained the seat of the bishops of Nebbio until the Revolution. One of them, Mgr Guasco, bishop from 1770 to 1773, wished to give his diocese a relic: in 1771 he obtained from Pope Clement XIV that of Saint Flor, a Roman soldier martyred in the 3rd century at the age of fifteen or sixteen, taken from the catacombs. Landed on the beach of La Marana on a Whit Monday, the relic has since been honoured every three years, on that day, by a procession in which its reliquary is carried on men's shoulders.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Sainte-Marie de Nebbio ↗

Getting there : About 800 metres from the centre of Saint-Florent (Haute-Corse), reached on foot from the town. Opening of the interior, times and any tours to be checked with the Saint-Florent – Nebbiu – Conca d'Oro intercommunal tourist office.

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

Ambient sound