Pieve di the Ostriconi

Before becoming this vast wilderness, the river mouth was home to the village of Ostriconi, the former seat of the pieve. The 16th century proved to be the undoing of the coastal town: faced with repeated raids by Barbary pirates and the threat of malaria in the marshy areas, the inhabitants chose to abandon the site and retreat to the heights of Palasca.

All that remains today of the old parish church of Santa Maria and the houses of yesteryear are silent stones, now permanently overgrown by the maquis. A very Corsican way for nature to reclaim its place over history.

In Palasca, the Church of the Annunciation (the Annonciade) houses an unexpected treasure trove. It contains liturgical objects and decorations of a richness that is surprising for a mountain village. Local tradition has it that this opulence stems in part from the generosity of the wealthy families of the pieve who, in the 18th century, commissioned Italy’s finest craftsmen to demonstrate the superiority of the Ostriconi over neighbouring pieve. It is one of the finest examples of Corsican Baroque in the region.

The parish of Ostriconi was long the gateway to a vast granary: the Agriate. Contrary to its current nickname, it was not a desert, but an area of intensive cereal cultivation. The farmers of Ostriconi would cross the river with their oxen to sow wheat there. An anecdote has it that the shepherds and farmers there lived in pagliaghji – thatched huts – so isolated that they only learnt of political changes in Bastia several months after everyone else.

The village of Novella, perched on the pieve, boasts a very distinctive architectural style. Owing to the lack of space on the rocky outcrop and the need for defence, the houses were built incredibly close together and tall, creating veritable ‘tower houses’. It is said that the inhabitants could cross much of the village by moving from one roof to another or through vaulted passageways without ever touching the ground, an ideal strategy for evading attackers.