Discover Punta Crena, Varigotti

Punta Crena is the promontory that closes Varigotti at its eastern end, in the comune of Finale Ligure, province of Savona. It juts into the sea and acts as a barrier between the borgo and the natural inlet behind it — the baia dei Saraceni, which served as the harbour in antiquity.

It was a fortified position before it was anything else. After the fall of the Roman empire the port below gave Byzantine shipping a safe landing, keeping the link with the fortifications still active along the Ligurian Apennines and the Maritime Alps. The port was defended with a castrum placed on this headland.

Four things are on it today. The ruins of that castrum; a watchtower built in 1559; the remains of a convent beside the tower; and a centuries-old olive grove on the flank that looks out to sea. The old church of San Lorenzo stands mid-slope and has its own page here.

Its eastern slope still carries a Byzantine wall. The civil buildings of the Byzantine settlement stood near the port and on that flank, and a perimeter wall of them remains today. Medieval remains dated to the fifteenth century survive on the same slope and the saddle beside it.

Can I climb the tower?

Nothing published says so. No opening hour, admission or contact for the 1559 tower appears in anything read for this page, and the Comune di Finale Ligure publishes none for any building in the comune. What does exist is the Museo Archeologico del Finale's guided visit to the promontory, booked by telephone on 019 690020.

Is the tower Saracen?

It is called that, and it was built against Turks. The record describes an ancient Saracen watchtower built in 1559, raised after an invasion by the Turks. The wider Saracen association at Varigotti — the bay's name, the inhabitants called saraceni, the hamlet of Ca' de Mori — rests on a hypothesis the same record calls devoid of real confirmation.

What is the oldest thing up here?

The Byzantine castrum and the perimeter wall of the civil settlement on the eastern flank. The castrum defended the harbour below and was destroyed by Rotari in 643; the perimeter wall is recorded as still remaining today.

How do I get up there?

On foot from Varigotti. No path grade, distance or walking time is published anywhere read for this page. The firmest indication of the terrain is that the 1995 restoration of the church on this slope lifted its materials by helicopter, the first time in Liguria.

What is the olive grove doing on a fortified headland?

Outliving it. In 1853 Varigotti's roughly 700 people lived from fishing, from olives and citrus, and from a stone quarry; the secular olive grove on the seaward flank is what survives of that. The record names it alongside the tower as the promontory's defining feature.

What was filmed here?

The closing scenes of the Rai 1 series Blanca, at the tower, broadcast in December 2021. The tower also appears in the Disney-Mondadori album Paperino e la notte del Saraceno, which was published in Latin as well, as Donaldus Anas atque nox saraceni.