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Origin and history

The Sainte-Marie de Quenza Chapel, also known as Santa Maria Assunta, is a Romanesque religious building located west of the village of Quenza, Alta Rocca. Founded around the year Mil (XI century), it is distinguished by its elongated plane, composed of a single nave covered with an apparent wooden frame and a semicircular apse arched in cul-de-four. Although partially rebuilt (Western Facade and South Wall), its north wall and apse seem to maintain their primitive state. This chapel, formerly a Pevian church, lost its parish status in the 17th century during an ecclesiastical reorganization of the Diocese of Ajaccio.

Classified as a Historical Monument in 1976, the Chapel of St Mary remains an active place of worship, especially during the Feast of the Assumption (15 August), where processions and animations are organized (Fêtes de Sainte Marie). Its sober architecture, in granite slabs, reflects medieval Corsican constructive traditions. Restored in the 20th century, it embodies the religious heritage of the microregion, linked to the piève de Scopen, in an environment marked by forests and summits of the Alta Rocca.

The village of Quenza, surrounded by mountainous landscapes (Aiguilles de Bavella, Cuscionu), was also a historic place: Pascal Paoli spent his last night there in Corsica in 1769 before his exile, in the house of Count Roccou Francesco Colonna Cesari. The chapel, although after this episode, fits into this territory full of history, between resistance, pastoral life and still perennial religious traditions (processions, employers' feasts).

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