sant'andrea d'orcino - sant'andrea d'orcinu

Sant'Andrea d'Orcino
Sant'Andrea d'Orcino is a charming village partly grouped in tiers on a hill offering a vast panorama on the cultivated basin with its vineyards, orchards, olive trees from where you can admire the landscape as well as the Gulf of Liscia. You can see old granite houses more or less exposed to the sea. Sant'Andrea d'Orcino is situated at 280 m of altitude, the municipality is crossed by the river A Liscia, the stream of Fiuminale and the stream of Pratilina. You can see the point of Montalbi (881 m) punta dei Mori.
In 1790, the village became the municipality of Sant'Andrea d'Orcino. These gently undulating lands are suitable for the cultivation of cereals. In the 19th century there were also vineyards, olive trees and chestnut trees. The village was once deserted due to the repression of Genoa against the Cinarchesi. The parish church, which gave its name to the village, was built in the 16th century.

The municipality of Sant'Andrea d'Orcino is stretched from east to west with a narrow access to the sea, on the side of the mountain at an altitude of 300 m, in the heart of the ancient trap of Cinarca. Sant'Andrea d'Orcino offers a vast panorama on the cultivated basin with its vineyards, orchards, olive trees, on the wooded hills, the scrubland, the distant mountains and the sea. The village is partly grouped in tiers on a hill, the rest is scattered around. There are traditional granite houses with thick walls. The houses are divided into two hamlets: Supranu and Pustanu. And the territory extends to the shore, following the river Liscia, to the place called San Petru below the Castellu Cinarca (main medieval castle).

The village of Sant'Andrea d'Orcino also suffered the consequences of the Genoese repression against the cinarchesi in the region, and like others around, it suffered massive desertification and destruction, by order of the Office of St. George because its inhabitants had not submitted to the Lordship of the Leca. The village will be rebuilt and reinvested only in modern times. Sant'Andrea d'Orcino was only established as a commune in 1790.
These lands, slightly hilly, were favourable to cereal cultivation, as the presence of flour mills testifies. In the 19th century there were also olive trees and chestnut groves.

The mill appears on the Plan Terrier drawn up in 1791, and may date from the first half of the 18th century. Mentioned as the property of Vincent Gentili on the state of the flour mills in activity in 1828. At that date, it employed three people for its operation, the annual expenses amounted to 100 francs and the products to 300 francs. Present on the cadastre of 1844 as the property of the Pinelli and Campinchi families, it also appears on the state of the flour mills drawn up in 1913, when it is the property of Mrs. Leca and crushes an average of 780 quintals of wheat per year. In 1917, in answer to the inquiry concerning the mills likely to crush the corn, the mayor of Sant' Andrea d' Orcino writes to the prefect that there is "no mill in his commune being able to work". The First World War seems to have put an end to the activity of this mill.

For the record:
The bandit Spada
Spada's life was turned upside down in Sari d'Orcino, one evening in October 1922 when he decided to shoot at the gendarmes who had come to arrest his friend Dominique Rutili. He mortally wounded one of them and then went underground with his friend.
In December 1926, he decided to take over the concession of the postal service by using a nominee. He did not hesitate to attack the van which provided the link between Ajaccio and Lopigna, in Sant'Andrea d'Orcino, seriously injuring the driver and two of the twelve passengers.
A second attack took place on 18 May 1930. He then attacked the same postal service again, whose concession had come to an end and had just been put out to tender again, which the bandit could not control.
This time, the driver and two gendarmes in the vehicle were killed and a third gendarme was seriously injured. The other passengers fled while the postal van was set on fire.
This tragedy caused the suspension of the Ajaccio-Lopigna postal service for six months.

Sant'andrea d'orcino is a peaceful municipality that stretches from the mountainside to the sea.