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Origin and history

The Chapel of St. Mary's Arca, called Santa Maria Assunta d'Arca, is a former Catholic church located in the municipality of Muracciole, in Upper Corsica. Built between the 7th and 10th centuries, it precedes the Pisan, Aragonese and Genoese periods that marked the island's history. Its preroman architecture is distinguished by a rectangular arched apse in a cradle, opened on the nave by a triumphal arch, characteristic of the Corsican religious buildings of that time. The site, now isolated at 570 m above sea level, once belonged to the hamlet of Arca, deserted after World War I.

In the 15th century, the chapel was enriched with murals and a collective burial (arca), used until the 19th century despite the royal ban on burying the dead in churches (edited in 1776). It served as a place of worship for the villages of Muracciole and Vivario until the 18th century construction of a new church in Vivario. At that time, she was a member of the Diocese of Aleria, then of Ajaccio from 1791. His plan evolved in the 17th century towards a Latin cross, with two side chapels added on both sides of the nave.

Classified as a historical monument in 1992, the chapel preserves traces of its medieval past, such as the preromantic window of the abside or the remains of frescoes of the 15th century (Christ in majesty, Saint Christophe, Saint Sebastian). However, its state of advanced degradation — reinforced frame, erased interior decorations — now prohibits access to the public. Its abandonment in the 20th century coincides with the desertification of the hamlet of Arca, now crossed by the great hiking trail Mare a mare Nord.

The building illustrates the architectural and liturgical transformations of Corsican churches, moving from a simple preroman model to a complex space integrated with medieval parish networks. Its history also reflects the demographic upheavals of rural Corsica, marked by the exodus after 1918. The excavations and studies (in particular by Geneviève Moracchini-Mazel) underline his role in island Christianity, between pisane, genoese and local influences.

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