The village of Piana, a designated Most Beautiful Village of France, overhangs the Gulf of Porto. The setting is magical!
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The village of Piana, a designated Most Beautiful Village of France, overhangs the Gulf of Porto. The setting is magical!
Piana is a town in Corse-du-Sud, located on the west coast of the island, about 68 km north of Ajaccio.
The village and its territory overlook the Gulf of Porto from a 400 m high plateau.
Member of the Most Beautiful Villages of France association, Piana owes its reputation to the calanches (calanques, in the Corsican language) of pink granite which form part of its coastline, and which have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage UNESCO.
Also with remarkable beaches, the town, whose population has grown from more than a thousand inhabitants before the Second World War to nearly 500 today, has turned to tourism while preserving its rich heritage. natural. If agricultural activity has declined, a dozen shepherds and fishermen still work in Piana.
It is now a stage of choice for those who want to visit Corsica.
Before setting off to discover the famous calanches, it is a good idea to visit the heart of the village, whose ocher houses seem to form an amphitheater, and whose picturesque streets and squares are charming.
Rebuilt from the end of the 17th century after a trying Genoese occupation, Piana has several monuments worth seeing.
This is the case of the parish church of the Assumption, built from 1765 to 1792 in a late Baroque style. It houses two listed works: a 17th century painting of Saint Hugo of Lincoln and a polychrome wooden statue of the Assumption. During the restoration of the church in 2004, paintings from the 18th century were unearthed. It regained its former glory after the 2004 restoration. restored in 2022, and the Sainte-Lucie chapel located in the hamlet of Vistale, built in 1906 and whose Byzantine-style interior was redecorated at the end of the 20th century by Russian artists.
It is then time to go to the calanche site, on the road leading to Porto. We will admire these granite rocks of red-orange color, seeming to plunge towards the sea, pierced with cavities formed by humidity. The whole forms a small mountain range culminating at nearly 700 m.
A stream and several marked and equipped paths cross the creeks, which constitute an essential hiking goal, surprising and exotic, dotted with unique panoramas. They do not present any particular difficulties, but it is advisable, in summer, to protect yourself from the heat… It is even pleasant to wait for sunset for exceptional viewpoints.
Some of the routes provide access to the rich communal forest, made up of maritime pines, which covers some 950 hectares.
But this unique coastline does not prevent Piana from also offering to indulge in the pleasures of the sea.
From the village, a road leads to the marina of Ficajola, the former fishing port of Piana. A cornice road overlooking the UNESCO site "of the Calanches of Piana, Gulf of Porto and Scandola" leads to the beach of Arone, whose reputation has quickly made it one of the most beautiful on the west coast of the island... It is supervised from June 15 to September 15.
Visitors can eat in establishments along the beach.
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During the Easter holidays you can participate in the "granitula" led by the brotherhood of St Antoine.
On the last Sunday of July, the inter brotherhood meeting takes place, bringing together many brotherhoods of Corsica. The ceremony is presided over by the Bishop of Corsica.
The patronal feast of the town is the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 15 with mass in the morning and the procession around the village at the end of the afternoon which ends with an aperitif offered by the municipality on the church square.
Concerts take place in the parish church as well as numerous exhibitions (paintings, etc.) in the multi-purpose hall in summer.
Departing from Porto, boat trips will take you to visit the Calanche de Piana, the Gulf of Porto and the Scandola reserve listed as UNESCO World Heritage.
