Baia dei Saraceni, Varigotti cronologia storica

Ultimo aggiornamento il 19 ottobre 2026

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Di solito non è la baia ad avere la storia, ma questa sì. Tutto a Varigotti si è disposto attorno a questa insenatura finché è stata un porto: la fortificazione sul capo, gli edifici civili sul versante orientale, il monastero e la sua chiesa sulla collina sopra. Quando il bacino si è riempito, tutto è rimasto dalla parte sbagliata di un promontorio e il paese si è ricostruito dall’altra. Nella baia resta la sabbia, e attorno restano quattro secoli di rovine che guardano giù verso una spiaggia.

Cronologia

VI-VII secolo Il porto di qui offre un approdo sicuro alle navi bizantine che mantengono i collegamenti con le fortificazioni ancora attive lungo l’Appennino ligure e le Alpi Marittime. È difeso da un castrum su Punta Crena, con gli edifici civili accanto al porto e sul fianco orientale del promontorio, dove rimane ancora un muro perimetrale.
643 Il re longobardo Rotari distrugge l’insediamento e spazza via i Bizantini dalla costa ligure; Varicottis cade in disuso perché i Longobardi non hanno flotta. La prima carriera del porto finisce qui.
1127 Il 28 agosto il monastero sul pendio sopra la baia viene posto sotto l’abbazia di Lerino da un accordo fra il vescovo di Albenga e l’abate Garin. La sua chiesa sta ancora lì, a guardare l’acqua.
XII-XIII secolo Varigotti riprende importanza e prosperità grazie all’antico porto, che diviene un’importante base di difesa e attacco marittimo dei Del Carretto. È la seconda e ultima carriera attiva del porto.
XIII-XIV secolo La popolazione si sposta dall’area del porto a ponente del promontorio, dove il paese sta oggi, e vi si costruisce una chiesa nuova. La baia viene abbandonata prima ancora di essere chiusa.
1341 Dopo una sconfitta di Finale da parte di Genova, il porto viene interrato per opera dei genovesi: un fatto che la fonte stessa definisce controverso, e che un altro racconto dà invece come distruzione a opera della flotta genovese in epoca antica, senza anno. In ogni caso da allora la baia è una spiaggia.
1559 Dopo un’invasione turca viene costruita una torre di vedetta in cima al promontorio. La baia non è più un porto, ma la costa va comunque sorvegliata.
metà anni Sessanta Finisce il campeggio libero sulla spiaggia della baia dei Saraceni, fino a quel momento ancora possibile. È l’unica data pubblicata per un cambiamento d’uso della baia in epoca moderna.
1977 La ferrovia costiera fra qui e Capo Noli viene abbandonata per una nuova linea interna completamente in galleria, dopo decenni di frane dalle falesie e dopo quella del Malpasso che nel 1949 uccise due macchinisti. Il vecchio tracciato in paese è oggi il parcheggio pubblico con cui si arriva a questa spiaggia.

Che cosa lascia un porto interrato

Del porto in sé non risulta sopravvivere nulla: nessun molo, nessuna banchina, nessuna struttura in acqua. Sopravvive tutto quello che è stato costruito a causa di esso, e sta tutto sul promontorio: le rovine del castrum, il muro perimetrale bizantino sul fianco orientale, i resti quattrocenteschi dell’abitato che stava su quel versante e sulla selletta accanto, e la chiesa di San Lorenzo a mezza costa, che fu parrocchiale finché la popolazione non se ne allontanò. La torre del 1559 e i resti del convento sono venuti dopo che il porto era già sparito. La baia ha tenuto solo il nome, e il nome indica Saraceni la cui presenza qui la fonte si rifiuta di confermare. Il cambiamento più recente è il più piccolo e il meglio datato: il campeggio libero, possibile su questa spiaggia fino a metà degli anni Sessanta, e non più da allora.

Verificato su Wikipedia, ottobre 2026.

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Wikipedia

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Verificato su Wikipedia — The origins of Varigotti are dated by some to the second century A.D., and by others to the Byzantine era; in favour of the first hypothesis, fragments and tombs datable from the third to the seventh century were found in the church of San Lorenzo. After the fall of the Roman Empire the port of Varigotti, located in the present-day baia dei Saraceni, offered a safe landing for the Byzantine ships that maintained the links with the fortifications still active along the Ligurian Apennines and the Maritime Alps. The orography separated Varigotti and nearby Noli from the Po hinterland, protecting them from possible barbarian incursions. The port was defended with a Byzantine castrum placed on Punta Crena, while the civil buildings were placed near the port and on the eastern slope of the promontory, of which a perimeter wall still remains today., This settlement was destroyed by the Lombard king Rotari in 643, when he swept the Byzantines from the Ligurian Riviera. Varicottis, as the military and port centre was then called, fell into disuse because the Lombards possessed no fleet. The destruction was reported by the chronicler pseudo-Fredegar, who cites Varicotti on a par with Albenga, Savona, Genoa, Oderzo and Luni. It is believed that the settlement of Varigotti itself, until the silting of the port that stood in the present baia dei Saraceni, was on the eastern slope of the mountain and the adjacent saddle, where medieval remains dated to the fifteenth century survive., The present church of San Lorenzo above the baia dei Saraceni is all that remains of an important and prosperous Benedictine monastic settlement of ancient origins, as is evident from the finds in the area of tombs dating from the late imperial or Byzantine era, probably of the eighth century; it was raised and enlarged in the twelfth century. A document of 28 August 1127 describes an agreement between Ottone, bishop of Albenga, and Garin, Benedictine abbot of Lerins: the abbot and the monks of the monastery are to be chosen only from among the religious of Lerins, for as long as the abbey can and will supply them; for the installation of a new abbot the bishop privately proposes a candidate to the abbot of Lerins, who appoints him if he judges him suitable or chooses a worthier person; the abbot of San Lorenzo owes obedience to the bishop and his clergy, and in case of default bishop and abbot of Lerins decide together whether to confirm or replace him; and whoever wishes to take the habit in the monastery of San Lorenzo must profess at Lerins. The presence of the monks of Lerins did not last long, since from 1200 onwards the church is in the hands of a preposito, mentioned repeatedly until the fifteenth century; one of the first citations in documents dates from 1213, when Bonifacio, ecclesiastical provost of San Lorenzo, and the canons of the church exchange land with the Marquis Enrico del Carretto., The whole Finale coast became part first of the Aleramic march and then of the territories of Bonifacio Del Vasto. In 1127 the Cistercian monks of the Abbey of Lerins settled in the church of San Lorenzo, a pre-existing monastic cenacle probably dating from the seventh century. In 1162 the march of Savona was constituted, enfeoffed to Enrico Del Carretto, of which Varigotti was a part often contested by the nascent comune of Noli. The monks of Lerins remained until 1177, when the church probably became the parish church of Varigotti -- there being in fact no news of the church until 1356. Varigotti took on importance and prosperity again thanks to the ancient port, which became an important base of maritime defence and attack for the Del Carretto. Meanwhile the population began to move from the port area to the area west of the promontory, where the settlement stands today; here a "compagna" was formed, a free association of the men of the villages with corporate power. At the same time a new church of San Lorenzo was constituted to the west, affiliated to the Pieve finalese, the old San Lorenzo above the port being by then far from the settlement. Given this westward shift, the inhabited nuclei of Pino, Giardino, Chien, Ca dei Mori, la Seva and la Monda were formed and the settlement developed along the coastal strip., In the centuries that followed, Finale Ligure clashed with the Republic of Genoa. After a defeat of Finale by Genoa, the port of Varigotti was silted up by the work of the Genoese in 1341, although this fact is controversial. In the following centuries the fate of Varigotti followed that of the Finale and its clashes with Genoa. In 1559, after an invasion by the Turks, the watchtower was built on the summit of Punta Crena. In 1582 Genoa, allied with Noli since 1202, built a turret between Punta Crena and Capo Noli to mark the boundary between the possessions; the turret, called "delle Streghe", remains today and still marks the boundary between the two comuni. In 1602 Finale passed under Spanish rule, and was ceded to Genoa in 1713., The church of San Lorenzo is a religious building on the strada statale 1 Via Aurelia in the rione of Varigotti at Finale Ligure, in the province of Savona; it is the seat of the parish community of the same name of the vicariate of Finale Ligure-Noli of the diocese of Savona-Noli. The first citations date from 1356, and of the original building only the late Gothic bell tower remains visible, although remodelled in later periods; the present bell tower belongs to the original church of 1578-1585, which then became the canonica. The present structure is of a single nave with a chapel set against the left side and surmounted by a dome. The characteristics are those of the Baroque style, the church having been the object of deep interventions during the seventeenth century: the parish church of San Lorenzo visible today was built between 1624 and 1637 by the architect Andrea Storace. The external facade has simple lines and is decorated with bicoloured horizontal bands in typical Ligurian style. Inside are conserved some works of note, such as a polyptych of San Lorenzo of 1584, a wooden tabernacle of the sixteenth century, a seventeenth-century canvas of the Madonna del Rosario, and a triptych of the Virgin with San Lorenzo and Sant'Antonio., Among the civil monuments of Varigotti: the promontory of Punta Crena, characterised by a centuries-old olive grove overlooking the sea, preserves an ancient Saracen watchtower built in 1559, and beside it are the remains of a convent; the ruins of the Byzantine castrum, dating from the Byzantine era and destroyed by Rotari; and the mole, named after the film director Renato Castellani. Among the religious monuments: the parish church of San Lorenzo, of Baroque forms with a late Gothic bell tower; the church of San Lorenzo overlooking the baia dei Saraceni, of very ancient origins, which was the first parish church of Varigotti until 1586; and the oratorio di Sant'Antonio Abate in the rione of Varigotti. Varigotti is a renowned tourist destination; the greatest flow of holidaymakers is registered in the summer period., The opening of the modern via Aurelia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the explosion of mass tourism have brought the present building expansion, fortunately almost entirely free of "ecomostri", despite the extreme narrowness of the available space, no more than 200-300 metres wide between the sea and the steep surrounding hills. Until the mid-1960s free camping was still possible on the beach of the baia dei Saraceni. Between Varigotti and Capo Noli the wild nature of the coast, with the vertical walls of crumbling rock hundreds of metres high of the overlooking hill, caused continual maintenance for the stretch of railway outside the tunnels: after yet another landslide, which had fatal consequences for two engine drivers in 1949 in the Malpasso area, the rockfall shelters still visible today were built at the mouths of the two tunnels. In 1977 the new inland railway line was activated, placing it entirely in tunnel. The old station is now private property, and the route that passed through the village has been transformed into a public car park. (ottobre 2026).

Baia dei Saraceni, Varigotti cronologia storica

Cronologia

Che cosa lascia un porto interrato

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