La Montagne des Orgues

Several introductory and musical itineraries allow you to discover the ancient heritage and history of Balagne: Ghjunsani, Haute Balagne, but also Castagniccia, Vallée de l'Asco and Ghjuvellina. We'll open the doors of rural tradition to you: by linking this heritage to the life of the villages we visit, you'll understand the messages of small Baroque churches, and their historic organs will resonate for you in these festive places. - GHJUNSANI - A luminous mountain valley under the protection of one of Corsica's highest peaks, the tutelary Monte Padre (2,389 m). This magnificent landscape is home to four villages with strong personalities, struggling to preserve their rural identity while hosting one of Corsica's most active cultural tools in the form of the A Stazzona scenic space. Three delightful organs await you: Pioggiola, Olmi Cappella and Vallica. - HAUTE BALAGNE - Open to the sea, the rich Balagne region, land of olive trees, vines, almond and orange trees... and organs, clings its villages to the balcony of the mountains, overlooking vast, luminous plains. The beautiful granite houses of the notables, the prosperity of the churches and convents, the roads lined with walls and chapels, the herds, threshing floors and strawbales sing an ancient and multiple polyphony: the story of the humble, the lords, the religious, the invaders and the merchants. You'll hear an astonishing variety of organs, some with a few surprises in store! In Balagne, a sign of wealth, almost every church, however modest, was endowed with an organ in the XVIIIᵉ and XIXᵉ centuries. - RUSTINU and CASTAGNICCIA - In the heart of schistose Corsica (San Pedrone, 1,767 m), this mountainous region, marked by the winds of history, saw the rise of the Paoli family during the wars of independence in the XVIIIᵉ century. In Morosaglia, Pascal's birthplace houses his ashes. Countless villages, with their magnificent Baroque churches and frescoed chapels, emerge from a sea of chestnut trees, bearing witness to a once industrious and structured life. You'll hear three very different instruments, including Corsica's oldest organ, at Piedicroce (1619). - CORTENAIS and GHJUVELLINA - First, on a foothill of Monte Padre, the ancient Pieve de Caccia and its dreamlike San Francescu convent... Then, under the Rundinaia needles, the road winds through Mediterranean mountain vegetation, far from the main roads. This is a rugged region, often wild and grandiose, steeped in legends, where you'll discover treasures of vitality in the villages clinging to the sheer rock: their little churches with their abundant, naïve decorations certainly don't inspire melancholy! Corte, the capital of Corsica, lives to the rhythm of its university and the Museum of Corsica. The XVIIIᵉ century organ in Corte's parish church is sumptuous. By reservation - Program available at L'Ile-Rousse Balagne Tourist Office