Geneviève Moracchini-Mazel (1926–2014)

Geneviève Moracchini-Mazel was born in Saint-Denis, France. In 1951, after a visit to Mariana, an ancient Roman site on the island of Corsica, she began to study it. She graduated with a degree in art history and archeology from the Sorbonne in 1958. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the Romanesque churches in Corsica and the island's early Christian monuments. For more than 30 years, she devoted herself to excavating Mariana and other sites on Corsica.

In 1967, she became a full member of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS, French National Center for Scientific Research) and deepened her work on early Christian architecture.

She helped create the Fédération d’Associations et Groupements pour les Etudes Corses (FAGEC, Federation of Associations and Groups for Corsican Studies) in 1970, which she served as President and Vice-President.

She was also the director of Cahiers Corsica, a scientific journal dedicated to research on Corsica.
The results of her work were published in the now-famous books, Trésors oubliés des églises de Corse (Forgotten Treasures of the Churches of Corsica) in 1959 and Les églises romanes de Corse - Les monuments paléochrétiens de la Corse in 1967. She also wrote numerous other books on the topic and was a tireless cultural advocate.