page_title: Ajaccio
section_title: Religious heritage
hierarchical_section_title: Ajaccio / Religious heritage
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Église Saint-Roch à Ajaccio, Architecture néoclassique de l'architecte Barthélémy Maglioli (1885)
context_page_description: Ajaccio is a French commune, prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud, and head office of the Collectivité territoriale de Corse. It is also the largest settlement on the island. Ajaccio is located on the west coast of the island of Corsica, 210 nautical miles southeast of Marseille.
  The original city went into decline in the Middle Ages, but began to prosper again after the Genoese built a citadel in 1492 to the south of the earlier settlement. After the Corsican Republic was declared in 1755 the Genoese continued to hold several citadels, including Ajaccio, until the French took control of the island.
  The inhabitants of the commune are known as Ajacciens or Ajacciennes. The most famous of these is Napoleon Bonaparte who was born in Ajaccio in 1769, and whose ancestral home, the Maison Bonaparte, is now a museum. Other dedications to him in the city include Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport.
context_section_description: The town is the seat of a bishopric dating at least from the 7th century. It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, training colleges, a communal college, a museum and a library; the three latter are established in the Palais Fesch, founded by Cardinal Fesch, who was born at Ajaccio in 1763.
  The commune has several religious buildings and structures that are registered as historical monuments:
  The former Episcopal Palace at 24 Rue Bonaparte (1622)
  The Oratory of Saint Roch at Rue Cardinal-Fesch (1599)
  The Chapel of Saint Erasme or Sant'Erasmu at 22 Rue Forcioli-Conti (17th century)
  The Oratory of Saint John the Baptist at Rue du Roi-de-Dome (1565)
  The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta at Rue Saint-Charles (1582) from the Renaissance which depended on the diocese of Ajaccio and where Napoleon was baptized with its organ from Cavaillé-Coll.
  The Chapel of the Greeks on the Route des Sanguiunaires (1619)
  The Early Christian Baptistery of Saint John (6th century)
  The Imperial Chapel (1857) houses the graves of Napoleon's parents and his brothers and sisters.
  Other religious sites of interest
  The Church of Saint Roch, Neoclassical architecture by Ajaccien project architect Barthélémy Maglioli (1885)
caption: Church of Saint-Roch, on the Cours Napoléon
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