Ajaccio Cathedral replaced the former Cathedral of Saint-Croix, which was destroyed in 1553 to make room for city defenses. The design is attributed to Giacomo della Porta, though the article says the attribution is uncertain. Groundbreaking was in 1577, and it was completed and consecrated in 1593. Bishop Giulio Giustiniani laid the final stone.
The style is Baroque and Mannerist, in the Counter-Reformation manner, with an ochre Baroque facade. The plan is a Latin cross, with a high, wide, short nave and seven side chapels. The polychrome marble high altar came from a church in Lucca, a gift from Elisa Bonaparte in 1809. Aristide Cavaillé-Coll built the organ in 1849.
Napoleon Bonaparte was baptized here on July 21, 1771. The cathedral has been a monument historique since 1906.
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