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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The parish church of the Annunciation of Corbara, located in Upper Corsica, is a former Catholic collegiate church built from 1641. His initial work was completed in 1686, with a main nave and four side chapels dedicated to saints and the Virgin. The building, with an elongated plan, features a bedside with a cut strip, a pilaster façade and a bell tower topped by a lantern. At that time, the church already houses a wooden pulpit and a bentier, reflecting its central role in local religious life.

In the middle of the 18th century, a second work campaign transformed the church: the choir was remodeled with a new high altar and stalls, and the building was erected as a collegiate building by Pope Benedict XIV in 1752. The chapter, installed in 1753, has up to eight canons. Interventions continued in the 19th century, with renovations of the choir (1815), frontispice (1855), tile (1866), and bell tower (1899). The painter Antonio Sicuri then decorates the apse with monumental neo-classical paintings.

Ranked as historical monuments in 2013 (after an inscription in 1985), the church retains exceptional furniture: a polychrome marble master altar, an 18th-century choir fence, 16th and 17th-century statues, and a 1890 baroque organ signed Agati-Tronci and Saladini. The altar paintings from the 17th century Genoese school and the embroidered liturgical fabrics testify to its past prestige. Recent restorations (2006, 2009) have preserved its architecture and decorations.

The building replaces an old parish church that has become too small, located in the district of Villa-di-Mezzo. Its anterior elevation, scanned by niches sheltering the statues of the Annunciation (Vierge, Columbus of the Holy Spirit, Archangel Gabriel), and its wavy pediment make it a notable example of Corsican religious architecture. Sacristy and its approach are included in the protection of historical monuments.

The classified furniture also includes a 16th-century wardrobe-basket, an 18th-century fruit wood luterin, and a 1750 polychrome carved wood pulpit. The baptismal fonts in painted wood (late eighteenth century) and paintings by Antonio Sicuri complete this artistic ensemble. The organ, still in place, illustrates the know-how of local organ factors, while the stained glass and oculi illuminates a vaulted nave in a glass crib.

Owned by the commune, the church of the Annunciation remains an active place of worship, attached to the diocese of Ajaccio. Its history, marked by successive enlargements and embellishments, reflects the evolution of religious and artistic practices in Corsica, from the 17th to the 19th century. The archives keep traces of apostolic visits, papal bubbles, and correspondences of priests, such as that of 1905 detailing the work of the previous century.

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