THE CHURCHES

The oblong layout of the construction shows a single hall covered with exposed wooden trusses, whose polychromy is hardly datable and quite uncommon. Ending in a semicircular apse with apsidal basin, the nave is covered with grey granite. The walls are built in a schist masonry in ochre shades. The round-arch tympanum of the western door illustrates geometrical, phytomorphic and maybe zoomorphic motifs, either engraved and in relief. A small Baroque bell tower with open arcade belfry, made to host one bell, completes the building.

First mentioned in a document dated 1281, he church was probably built between the mid-12th and mid-13th centuries. A second construction phase would follow in 1378, according to the inscriptions found on two stone slabs. In this phase, probably, the nave was extended westwards and a new façade was erected.
It was adorned by a frescoed decoration in 1386, as indicated by a date. In 1646, on the occasion of a visit by Monsignor Marliani, bishop of Mariana and Accia, the church ceased its parish functions (replaced by the church of the Assumption, built in the surroundings).

The interior walls are adorned with monumental paintings corresponding to three executive steps. A geometrical pattern stands as the only vestige of a decoration remained from the first phase. The second one has left some wall paintings on the southern wall, set by means of a fresco coating, with panels featuring St. James the Greater, St. Michael and Saint Christopher with Jesus Child. Another panel represents Saint Anthony and maybe Saint Catherine. These paintings are dated 1386 and are signed Maestro Giovanni. A third executive step dates from the 19th century, related to the Baroque retable and the altar.

This building underwent a number of renovation works; not all of them, though, may be dated, based on the available documentation. More restoration works would start in 1970, involving the trusses and some roof slates, which were replaced; the door of the western façade and the bell tower were restored. In 1982 the internal flooring was made in terra cotta. Finally, between 2006 and 2008, restorations involved the whole building, including its monumental paintings.

Coroneo Roberto, Chiese romaniche della Corsica. Architettura e scultura (XI-XIII secolo), Cagliari, 2006.
Coroneo Roberto, Architettura romanica dalla metà del mille al primo ‘300, Nuoro, 1993.
Moracchini-Mazel Geneviève, Les églises romanes de la Corse, T. 1, 2. Paris, 1967.