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Built between 1490 and 1495, this house was initially the residence of the Genoese governor's vicar and the headquarters of the Court of Justice. It was then purchased by a notable from Bastia who made significant changes to the building.

This house was built between 1490 to 1495 to be the dwelling of the Genoese governor’s vicar and the seat of the court of justice ("la corte", which gave its name to the square). Civil and criminal cases were pleaded there. The vicar - the second highest official in the Genoese administration - had to be a doctor in law, and substituted the governor in case the latter was unable to attend, or had died. By late 16th century, the vicariate having been removed to the Governor’s Palace, the building became the property of the Centurione family. Paolo Zerbi (1582-1635) a lawyer and influential citizen of Bastia, a vicar, and later a podestà, vpurchased the building in the 1610’s. A rebellious member of the Corsican-Genoese ruling class, he raised the house by one floor because originally, it had only one floor. He fortified it by piercing loopholes in three places in the staircase, and protected the access to the piano nobile (the "noble floor") by a heavy door. He altered the building by adding a water cistern, an oven, a chapel and a look out post. Since then the building has been named "Casa Zerbi". In 1745, the bombing of the Anglo-Sardinian fleet devastated the district of the Citadel. In order to protect their house, the de Zerbi family put the statue of the Virgin which decorates the landing of the piano nobile on a window. A cannon ball shot from the sea snatched away the arm of the child-Jesus, but the house was saved.

Bastia

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