Looming above the harbour, Bastia’s stern-walled citadel was built between the 15th and 17th centuries for the city’s Genoese masters. Known as the Terra Nova, despite looking much older than the lower town, it’s largely residential and uncommercialised. The amber-hued Palais des Gouverneurs now houses the Musée de Bastia, while the majestic Cathédrale Ste-Marie and the rococo Église Ste-Croix, home to a mysterious black-oak crucifix found in the sea in 1428, stand side by side a few streets south.
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Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¼´Ê±¿ª½±'s must-see attractions
0.22 MILES
Bastia’s Vieux Port is ringed by precariously tall, pastel-coloured tenements and buzzy brasseries, and overlooked by the twin-towered Église St-Jean…
0.33 MILES
Criss-crossed by narrow lanes, Terra Vecchia is Bastia’s heart and soul. Shady place de l’Hôtel de Ville hosts a lively morning market on Saturday and…
0.06 MILES
Occupying the former palace of Bastia’s Genoese governors, set into the formidable walls of the citadel, this museum retraces the city’s history from its…
8.41 MILES
Atop a footpath that winds up between the rocks opposite the church, the stark Tour de Nonza is an 18th-century structure erected on the ruins of a…
26.39 MILES
This coastal promenade follows the seafront east from Île Rousse. The beach right by the town centre is actually very pleasant, with fine broad sand, but…
26.46 MILES
Île Rousse’s delightful old town centres on tree-shaded place Paoli, with its daily food market, designed to resemble a Greek temple, alongside.
0.28 MILES
The dramatic twin-towered church of John the Baptist soars majestically above the Vieux Port waterfront. Viewed from the citadel above, it’s the most…
0.56 MILES
The 19th-century place St-Nicolas, an enormous paved square that sprawls from the ferry port towards the old harbour, is the focus of the everyday life of…
Nearby Bastia attractions
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Adjoining and slightly predating the Cathédrale Ste-Marie, the rococo Église Ste-Croix features gilded ceilings and a mysterious black-oak crucifix, said…
0.04 MILES
Dating from the early 17th century, Bastia's richly ornate cathedral stands in the heart of the citadel. Seven caps hang over the choir, each belonging to…
0.06 MILES
Occupying the former palace of Bastia’s Genoese governors, set into the formidable walls of the citadel, this museum retraces the city’s history from its…
0.08 MILES
Climbing the hillside below the mighty walls of the citadel, and threaded through by interlacing paths and stairways, this wooded park makes a scenic…
0.22 MILES
Bastia’s Vieux Port is ringed by precariously tall, pastel-coloured tenements and buzzy brasseries, and overlooked by the twin-towered Église St-Jean…
0.28 MILES
The dramatic twin-towered church of John the Baptist soars majestically above the Vieux Port waterfront. Viewed from the citadel above, it’s the most…
7. Chapelle de l’Immaculée Conception
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Notable for its elaborately painted barrel-vaulted ceiling, the baroque Chapelle de l’Immaculée Conception served in 1795 as the seat of the short-lived…
0.33 MILES
Criss-crossed by narrow lanes, Terra Vecchia is Bastia’s heart and soul. Shady place de l’Hôtel de Ville hosts a lively morning market on Saturday and…