The dominant tone of Corsica's most successful commercial town, BASTIA , is one of charismatic dereliction, as the city's industrial zone is spread onto the lowlands to the south, leaving the centre of town with plenty of aged charm. The old quarter, known as the Terra Vecchia, comprises a tightly packed network of haphazard streets, flamboyant Baroque churches and lofty tenements, their crumbling golden-grey walls set against a backdrop of maquis -covered hills. Terra Nova, the historic district on the opposite side of the old port, is a tidier area that's now Bastia's yuppie quarter.
Bastia isn't a large town and all its sights can easily be seen in a day without the use of a car. The spacious place St-Nicolas is the focus of town life: open to the sea and lined with shady trees and cafés, it's the most pleasant spot for soaking up the atmosphere. Running parallel to it on the landward side are boulevard Paoli and rue César Campinchi , the two main shopping streets, but all Bastia's historic sights lie within Terra Vecchia , the old quarter immediately south of place St-Nicolas, and Terra Nova , the area surrounding the citadel. There's not much of interest in the Nouveau Port area, north of the centre, other than restaurants and downmarket bars.
The city dates from Roman times, when a base was set up at Biguglia to the south, although Bastia began to thrive under the Genoese, when wine was exported to the Italian mainland from Porto Cardo, forerunner of Bastia's Vieux Port, or Terra Vecchia. Despite the fact that in 1811 Napoléon appointed Ajaccio capital of the island, initiating a rivalry between the two towns which exists to this day, Bastia soon established a stronger trading position with mainland France. The Nouveau Port, created in 1862 to cope with the increasing traffic with France and Italy, became the mainstay of the local economy, exporting chiefly agricultural products from Cap Corse, Balagne and the eastern plain
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