Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste

The Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste, standing at the southern end of the Vieux Port, is Bastia's principal church and one of the most impressive baroque churches on the island. The current building dates from the late 17th century, though it was substantially modified and extended through the 18th and 19th centuries. The twin belltowers that define the Bastia skyline as seen from the sea were added in 1852.

The interior is richly decorated in the Italian baroque manner: painted ceilings, gilded altars, and side chapels filled with dark oil paintings. The most notable piece is the high altar in polychrome marble. The church gives onto the Vieux Port on one side and the narrow lanes of Terra Vecchia on the other. Mass is held daily, and the church is open to visitors outside services.

things to do sight church
A story
Saint-Jean-Baptiste is the largest church in Corsica — a surprise given that it occupies a plot barely larger than the houses around it in the dense Terra Vecchia quarter. Its two baroque towers, visible from the ferry as you approach Bastia, were added in the 19th century after the original 17th-century structure was deemed too plain for a city of Bastia's ambitions. The interior holds a collection of Genoese baroque paintings and an elaborate high altar that took craftsmen from Genoa eighteen years to complete.