Notre Dame de Monserato

Access map

73, Chemin de Scala Santa
20200 Bastia
GPS : 42.690684,9.438367

The Oratory of Our Lady of Monserato is a small church dedicated to St. Pancras. It has the "Blessed Stairs" (hence the name Scala Santa chapel) dedicated by Pope Pius VII in thanks for the role that the city of Bastia played in protecting against religious persecution after Napoleon's Concordat of 1801. Indeed, during that period 424 Roman Catholic priests who had not sworn loyalty to Napoleon Bonaparte were banished to Corsica. At that time the Scala Santa, or Blessed Stairs, had been a unique privelege for Rome, but the ecclesiastical exiles on their return to Rome obtained this privelege for Bastia.