{"id":5674,"date":"2026-06-13T05:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/walk-to-san-petru-daccia-a-remote-ruin-that-was-once-a-cathedral-the-smallest-in-corsica\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T13:36:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:36:51","slug":"walk-to-san-petru-daccia-a-remote-ruin-that-was-once-a-cathedral-the-smallest-in-corsica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/walk-to-san-petru-daccia-a-remote-ruin-that-was-once-a-cathedral-the-smallest-in-corsica\/","title":{"rendered":"Walk to San Petru d’Accia, a remote ruin that was once a cathedral\u2014the smallest in Corsica"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This ruin doesn’t look like much. Built at an altitude of 1,070 meters, far from the coast, hidden deep in the Castagniccia region\u2014where the pioneers of Christianization still clashed with the primitive beliefs of the mountain peoples\u2014 it was nonetheless a unique religious center on the island between the 7th and 16th centuries. Its name: San Petru d’Accia. <\/p>\n\n

I\u2019m talking about a cathedral; the one and only, built in the Corsican mountains in the year 596, at the request of Gregory the Great, who wanted\u2014as Genevi\u00e8ve Moracchini-Mazel tells us\u2014the people of the interior to \u201clearn to no longer worship either wood or stone.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

A tiny, remote cathedral<\/h2>\n\n

Its religious significance grew in 1133 when Pope Innocent II, in a ruling worthy of Solomon, reorganized the island\u2019s dioceses to divide them more evenly between Pisa and Genoa. It was thus from the 12th century onward that San Petru d\u2019Accia became a diocese\u2014the smallest on the island, comprising two parishes (Ampugnani and Rostino). Four centuries passed before another pope, Pius IV, deeming the territory too small and insufficiently profitable, decided that it should be annexed to the Diocese of Mariana. This was in 1563. <\/p>\n\n

Is the cathedral of Accia small and isolated? Yet its uniqueness is not limited to its geographic location. The building is also unusually small for this type of place of worship: 14 meters long and about 8 meters wide. \u201cIt\u2019s the size of a chapel\u2014in fact, the IGN map lists it as such<\/em>, \u201d<\/em> remarks Laurent Ridel, editor of the website D\u00e9coder les \u00e9glises et les ch\u00e2teaux<\/a><\/em>. Had it not been so dilapidated, this would have made it the smallest cathedral in Corsica\u2026 or even in France. <\/p>\n\n

\"San
The oratory built on the ruins of Accia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"Hike
The religious site captured by Raymond Henrard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

But other issues prevent the ruins of Accia from claiming the record. In particular, because historians disagree on the original structure: between Genevi\u00e8ve Moracchini-Mazel, who dates it to the late 6th century, and Roberto Coroneo, who believes it was rebuilt around the 12th century, the gap in dating widens. This is enough to sow doubt. <\/p>\n\n

A 30-minute walk through the hills of Castagniccia<\/h2>\n\n

So what is this basilica-chapel-church that can be seen today in the towns of Quercitello and La Porta? “The small oratory standing at the Col du Prato, which has preserved its apse and part of its walls, is a remnant of the ancient cathedral of Accia<\/em>, “<\/em> according to the authors of the Corse Romane<\/a> website, who see it as \u201ca fine example of the desire to bring the Gospel to the most remote corners, at the crossroads of mule trails.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

While it\u2019s hard to imagine bishops climbing Mount San Petrone to conduct their services, the hike is much more accessible in our day and age. Drive to the Col du Prato, where you\u2019ll find a pizzeria. Park there and follow a well-marked trail for about 30 minutes… And you\u2019ll finally arrive at the cathedral\u2014or what remains of it\u2014the most astonishing in Corsica. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The History and Secrets of an Abandoned Religious Site\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true},"categories":[133,130],"tags":[207,181],"class_list":["post-5674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-beautiful-stones","category-sea-mountains-scrubland","tag-castagniccia","tag-central-corsica","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lettera.corsica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/San_Petru_dAccia_Corse-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5677,"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5674\/revisions\/5677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lettera.corsica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}