BASTIA, city, east coast of Corsica, 98m. N.N.E. of Ajaccio by rail. Pop. (1931), 40,300. It is the largest town on the island because it is near the mainland and it is the outlet for the fertile northern valleys. The centre, Terra Vecchia, is the original fishing village, while the Terra Nuova lies to the south, and the modern town to the north. The settlement was renamed Bastia when the Genoese fortress was built by Lionello Lomellino in 1383. Under the Genoese it was the principal stronghold in the north, and the residence of the governor; and in 1553 it was attacked by the French. On the division of the island in 1797 into the depart ments of Golo and Liamone, Bastia remained the capital of the former; but at the reunion Ajaccio became capital. The city was taken by the English in 1745 and again in 1794. The densely populated commercial quarter of the old port has steep and narrow streets, and the modern quarter to the north lies round the new port. Its churches, of which the largest is San Giovanni Battista, are florid in decoration, as are the law-court, the theatre and the hotel-de-ville. The citadel, which dominates the old port, has a 14th-century keep. The chief exports are chestnut-extract for tanning, cedrates, citrons, oranges, early vegetables, fish, copper ore and antimony ore. Imports include coal, grain, flour and wine. Industry includes fishing (anchovies and coral), the manufacture of tobacco, oil-distilling, tanning, and the prepara tion of preserved citrons and of macaroni.
Bastia is the seat of a tribunal of first instance and of a sub prefect, and of the military governor of Corsica, of a court of appeal and a court of assizes, and of a tribunal and a chamber of commerce.