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Origin and history

The convent of Saint Francis of Zuani, although bearing the name Zuani, is located on the nearby municipality of Ampriani, at 726 meters altitude. Mentioned in 1540 as a capuchin hermitage, he was officially authorized in 1547 by a bubble of Pope Paul III. The building, characteristic of Corsican Franciscan convents, was completed around 1730. In particular, he is associated with the memory of the Franciscan monk Saint Théophile de Corte, who would have retired there in the 18th century.

The convent was a strategic and religious place in the region. In 1540, the Capuchins settled there for the first time in Corsica, and the Recollets built a monastery there the same year. The site was also the scene of conflicts, as in 1763, when Aleriu Francesco Matra occupied the convent during his military campaigns in Serra's stake. After the transfer of Corsica to France in 1768, the convent gradually lost its central role.

The building, now privately owned, has been partially protected since 2008: its facades, roofs (with the exception of recent extensions) and the presumed cell of Saint Theophile are inscribed in the Historical Monuments. Although he is no longer visiting, he remains an architectural and historical testimony of the Franciscan presence in Corsica, in a natural setting marked by the chestnuts and reliefs of the San Petrone massif.

The Serra region, where the convent is located, was an important part of the "Deçà des Monts", often in tension with the Genoese authorities. The surrounding villages, such as Zuani and Ampriani, were repeatedly destroyed during revolts or reprisals, especially in 1566, when the Genoese burned 123 villages, including those of Serra's stake. The convent, as a spiritual and sometimes political gathering place, embodies these complex historical dynamics.

Architecturally, the convent illustrates the adaptation of begging orders to island constraints: simplicity of materials, integration into the landscape, and both religious and community functions. Its decline in the 18th century reflects the upheavals associated with the transition between Genoese domination and French administration, as well as the gradual secularization of Corsican rural societies.

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