It also has the second-highest population of any commune on the island after Ajaccio and is the capital of the Bagnaja region and of the department. Bastia is the principal port of the island and its principal commercial town and is known for its wines.
During the Roman Empire , the site of Cardo with the north-eastern district of the current commune of Bastia and Pietrabugno formed a Pieve: the oldest known administrative division. This territory was occupied by the Vanacimi people. Neither Ptolemy , Strabo , or Pliny in the descriptions they made of the island mentioned Bastia.
At the end of the 9th century, the territory or pieve of Mantino depended on the lords Loretesi. Shortly afterwards, considering the great expense and little profit in Corsica, the Republic decided to withdraw and no longer intervene in the affairs of the island.
Nevertheless some Genoese gentlemen formed a partnership known as the Maona to try and manage the economy on the island on behalf of the Republic of Genoa.
They all came with the title of Governor and brought with them a thousand soldiers. Leonello, deprived of all support, returned to Biguglia and from there he went to build the castle of Bastia to maintain his sea communications". According to Giovanni della Grossa, the "seigneurialisation" of Loreto would have been, as with Genoese families of the Cape, usurping the County title acquired during the "people's government". Small lordships that emerged from the courts of the Bishop of Nebbio, probably sometime in the second half of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th century, were partly absorbed by the lords of Bagnaia before Then, before , they were recovered and absorbed, like many others in the new lordship of Giovanninello de Loreto.
