Attached to the majestic Romanesque church of A Canonica, the archaeological site of Mariana transports you to an ancient quarter and Corsica's first cathedral.
The Mariana archaeological site extends over nearly 4 hectares acquired by the City of Lucciana. This archaeological reserve includes two remarkable Romanesque churches, Santa Maria Assunta known as A Canonica, and San Parteo, built at the beginning of the 12th century under the guidance of the Archbishop of Pisa. The ancient city of Mariana is still mainly buried, its exploration to be carried out gradually by archaeologists.
Near the A Canonica church, intertwined traces bear witness to the history of Mariana from antiquity to the Middle Ages. An ancient street running east-west defines a residential, artisanal and commercial district. The remains of the first cathedral built in Corsica at the end of the 4th/beginning of the 5th century hide those of an ancient domus - a luxurious residence - while the ruins of the medieval episcopal palace appear here and there.
After visiting the museum's permanent route, you'll know how to make sense of the walls and floors, going from one era to another.During the archaeologists' investigations, the remains discovered are studied and integrated into the archaeological park, which continues to extend from the river to the museum.
Located as close as possible to the river, a probable navigation route, this district was organised around a street running east-west, called a decumanus, lined with porticoes allowing onlookers to walk in the shade or sheltered from the weather. Numerous shops have been identified, often organised into two rooms: the actual shop itself and a rear shop intended for craft activities or storage. Some were arranged as outbuildings of wealthy townhouses, others could provide the ground floor of more basic buildings where the residential part could be relegated to the upstairs floor. Finally, a market - macellum - organised around a courtyard with portico, has been identified.
The religious building, rebuilt on the foundations of the early Christian building, adopted a plan with a single nave, equipped with a vast axial apse and two vaulted side chapels. Soberer than at the Canonica, the architectural ornaments are concentrated on the exterior facades. The apse is magnified by fine chiselled arcades resting on columns crowned with marble capitals. The dimensions of the building, almost 22 m long, are exceptional for such a suburban church, and demonstrate the importance conferred on it. They could be explained by the desire to glorify an ancient sanctuary, or to exalt the cult of relics, perhaps those of Parteo himself.