THE CHURCHES

The Nebbio episcopal cathedral, built in white limestone masonry, presents a basilical plan. Either the nave and the aisles, separated by massif piers, are covered with exposed wooden trusses; the nave ends in a semicircular apse with apsidal basin. The present cover is made of grey granite. Its western façade is adorned by large, semicircular blind arches divided into two courses. The door is surmounted by a lintel and an open-work tympanum. The façade is lightened by narrow openings, surmounted by monolithic lintels surmounted by moulded round-arches. The side walls are adorned by Lombard bands springing from corbels, decorated with geometric motifs. These decorations are also found on a side elevation, where, again, a door is surmounted by a lintel and a naked tympanum. Finally, the apse is decorated by small arches supported by thin columns.

The ancient Nebbio bishop’s cathedral, sited near the town of Saint Florent, was probably built upon the vestiges of a palaeo-Christian basilica. It likely dates from the first half of the 12th century.
The earliest document to mention the edifice, see of Nebbio diocese, dates back to 1144. The rare references following the end of the 13th century suggest that the cathedral had been abandoned at that time. Restored by the Nebbio bishop Monsignor Agostino Giustiniani, in view of a reinvestment on that place, it was again abandoned at the end of the 16th century, unroofed, as confirmed by the report of Monsignor Alexandre Sauli, bishop of Aleria, following his pastoral visit.
It lost its cathedral status in 1790 and was not reopened to the cult until 1801. Its bell tower, mentioned for the first time in Monsignor Agostino Giustiniani’s description of Corsica (1531), was destroyed in 1888.

The interior of this building, adorned with sculpted capitals, hosts some monumental  paintings and stuccoed decorations, besides the reliquary of Saint Flor, whose transfer from Italy to the cathedral had been authorized by Pope Clément XIV. Even today, it is still deeply worshipped.

The degradation state of Nebbio cathedral was reported on several occasions during the 19th century, in particular by Francesco Ottaviano Renucci, former principal of Bastia college, and Monsignor Casanelli d’Istria, bishop of Corsica, on the occasion of his pastoral visit of 1841. Listed among the Historic Monuments in 1840, it underwent important restoration works between 1858 and 1886 and, again, in 1984 and 1990.

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.