The art of living in Corsica

Dominating the fabulous Prunelli valley, nestled at an altitude of 900 m in the Corsica Regional Nature Park, Bastelica is a village full of character at the heart of the Corsican mountains, with the Prunelli river running through it. With its granite houses, narrow cobbled streets, fountains and age-old ovens, the architecture of the place bears witness to the rich history of an island that has still not revealed all its secrets. Follow the spectacular path of the Prunelli river, along the gorges that lead to Lake Tolla, experience more than one adventure from the mountain to the sea, savouring its delights, from the most peaceful to the most intense, exploring the incredibly generous nature behind the traditions and know-how kept alive here.

The birth of a village

Some of the oldest remains providing evidence of the earliest inhabitants are the foundations of Sant’Austinu chapel (11th century), in the direction of the Col de Scalella mountain pass. It is said that a trivial yet violent disagreement between the villagers was behind a move lower down the valley to found Bastelica. For the most part made up of pastoral families moving regularly depending on their livestock’s needs, the inhabitants gradually settled down. Towards the end of the 18th century, Bastelica is described as the village with the highest number of shepherds.

From valiant Sampiero to Shakespeare’s Othello

The famous Sampiero Corso was born in Bastelica in 1498. He is one of the legendary figures who have shaped the history of Corsica, along with Napoleon Bonaparte and Pasquale Paoli. A mercenary from the age of 14 and an illustrious soldier in the service of Giovanni de’ Medici, Pope Clement VII, Francis I and then Henry II, he attempted to free Corsica from Genoese control. The naval officer and poet Sir William Wyse used to say of him that he was “the most Corsican of Corsicans”. In fact, his incessant fighting against the Genoese would establish the valiant Sampiero as the forerunner of an independent Corsica. Tragically known for having killed his wife, Vannina d’Ornano, with his own hands after she left the marital home and made a pact with the Genoese enemy, he is said to have inspired Shakespeare’s character of Othello. He died at the age of 69 in a trap set by Vannina’s cousins, who avenged the young woman’s death with the assistance of foreign mercenaries.

Bastelica presents its hamlets’ houses in the shape of an amphitheatre. The village is surrounded by mountain pastures scattered with chestnut trees and a host of mule tracks connect it to the other valleys. The village is made up of several districts: Dominicacci, Tricolacci, Boccialacci, Vassalacci, Santu, Costa and Stazzona. The village also includes three more distant hamlets: Vignola, Radicale and Zipitoli.

Strolling around the village, its built heritage is revealed at every turn: houses from the Middle Ages rub shoulders with those belonging to people of note from the 17th and 19th centuries, along with numerous age-old washing places, fountains and bread ovens. Many chapels also attest to the village’s organisation: the L’Anunziata à Dominicacci chapel, the Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel dite a Ghjisgiola à Vassalacci chapel, the Sainte-Bernadette à Radicale chapel and the Sant’Austinu di Basterga chapel. At a distance from the village, you can also admire the chestnut dryers and the flour mills from the 19th-century, attesting to the rich life of the place. In the Pineta forest, the Zipituli Genoese bridge can be discovered in a charming landscape. It is a beautiful structure with a single arch that linked Bastelica to Ajaccio in the 16th century.

At the centre of the village, the Baroque-style San Michele parish church dates from the 17th century. It is home to remarkable works that are listed as Historic monuments: stations of the cross from 1905, a wooden statue of the Virgin and Child, a 19th-century Our Lady of the Rosary, a painting of Calvary and a marble font that date from the 17th century; the altar is also from the same period and comes from the now-defunct Trinité de Bastelica convent, along with a statue of St Anthony of Padua. You can also admire frescoes by the painter Frassati and remarkable stained glass windows.

There are many monuments dedicated to Sampiero Corso, a key figure from the village who has gone down in history. An imposing bronze statue inaugurated in 1890 and listed as a Historic Monument holds a central place facing the church. It depicts Sampiero Corso in action holding a sword in one hand and his shield in the other. The 15th-century house where Sampiero Corso was born bears a commemorative plaque put up in 1855 by the grandson of Prince Lucien Bonaparte, the poet Sir William Wyse and his friend the lawyer Alexandre Costa. In the Tricolacci district, a bust crafted in 1939 by Louis Patriarche, the French sculptor and medallist native to Bastia, is located opposite the Costa family’s manor house, another remarkable building whose construction dates back to the 15th century.