Varigotti historical timeline

History

Varigotti is a harbour that lost its harbour, and everything about the place follows from that. For something over a thousand years the bay behind Punta Crena was a working port — Byzantine, then Del Carretto — defended by a castrum on the headland above it. When the basin silted, the village moved round to the west side of the promontory, where it still is, and turned to fishing, olives and quarried stone. What a visitor walks today is the second settlement: a strip of houses at the water's edge, with the first one's ruins on the hill behind and an empty bay beyond them.

Chronology

2nd c. A.D. Some date the origins of Varigotti to this century and others to the Byzantine era. The evidence for the earlier reading is physical: fragments and tombs datable from the third to the seventh century were found in the area of the church of San Lorenzo, and a sarcophagus of the third or fourth century from there is now in the archaeological museum at Finalborgo.
6th-7th c. After the fall of the Roman empire the port — in today's baia dei Saraceni — gives Byzantine ships a safe landing, keeping the link with the fortifications still active along the Ligurian Apennines and the Maritime Alps. A castrum is placed on Punta Crena to defend it, with the civil buildings by the port and on the eastern flank of the promontory, where a perimeter wall still stands.
643 The Lombard king Rotari destroys the settlement, sweeping the Byzantines from the Ligurian coast. Varicottis falls out of use because the Lombards have no fleet. The chronicler pseudo-Fredegar names Varicotti alongside Albenga, Savona, Genoa, Oderzo and Luni — which is the measure of what was lost here.
1127 On 28 August an agreement between Ottone, bishop of Albenga, and Garin, abbot of Lérins, puts the monastery at San Lorenzo under the island abbey: its abbot and monks are to be chosen only from Lérins men, and anyone taking the habit here must profess at Lérins. The church on the promontory is what survives of that monastery.
1162 The march of Savona is constituted and enfeoffed to Enrico Del Carretto. Varigotti belongs to it and is repeatedly contested by the rising comune of Noli — a rivalry whose boundary is still on the ground between Punta Crena and Capo Noli.
1177 The Lérins monks leave, and the church probably becomes Varigotti's parish. From 1200 it is held by a preposito, named repeatedly down to the fifteenth century; in 1213 the provost Bonifacio and his canons exchange land with the marquis Enrico del Carretto.
1200s-1300s The population moves from the harbour round to the west of the promontory, where the village stands today, and forms a compagna, a free association of the village men. The hamlets of Pino, Giardino, Chièn, Cà dei Mori, la Seva and la Monda date from this shift, and a new church of San Lorenzo is built because the old one above the port is now too far away.
1341 After a defeat of Finale by Genoa, the port of Varigotti is filled in by the Genoese — a claim the record itself calls controversial. Whoever closed it, the bay has been a beach and not a harbour ever since.
1559 After a Turkish invasion a watchtower is built on the summit of Punta Crena. It still stands, with the remains of a convent beside it, and the final scenes of a national television series were shot at it in 2021.
1582 Genoa, allied with Noli since 1202, builds a turret between Punta Crena and Capo Noli to mark the edge of its possessions. The torretta delle Streghe is still there and still marks the boundary between the two comuni.
1602 Finale passes under Spanish rule, and is ceded to Genoa in 1713. Varigotti follows the Finale's fortunes through both, as a dependency rather than a party to them.
1624 The present parish church of San Lorenzo is begun on the shore side, finished in 1637 to the design of the architect Andrea Storace. It keeps the late Gothic bell tower of its predecessor and holds a polyptych of 1584.
1790s-1800s Under Napoleonic rule and the Repubblica Ligure, Varigotti is constituted a free autonomous comune. It is the only period in which the village governs itself outright, and it lasts about seventy years.
1853 Varigotti counts around 700 inhabitants, living chiefly from fishing, from the cultivation of olives and citrus, and from stone quarried locally. The olive grove on the seaward flank of Punta Crena is what survives of that economy.
1869 While the Genoa-Ventimiglia railway is being built, Varigotti is aggregated — not without resistance — to the borgo of Finale Pia, together with Calvisio, also an autonomous comune until then. In 1927 it becomes part of the newly constituted comune of Finale Ligure.
1949 A landslide in the Malpasso area kills two engine drivers. After it, rockfall shelters are built at the mouths of the two tunnels; they are visible today, and they are the most direct evidence of how unstable this coast is.
1977 A new railway line is opened inland, entirely in tunnel, and the coastal route is abandoned. The old station becomes private property and the trackbed that ran through the village is turned into the public car park visitors use now.

What the silted harbour left behind

Losing the port did not empty Varigotti; it moved it. The settlement that stood on the eastern slope of the mountain and the saddle beside it was abandoned as the basin filled, and medieval remains dated to the fifteenth century still sit there, with the Byzantine perimeter wall below them and the castrum ruins above. Everything built after the move is on the other side of the promontory: the new church, the hamlets of Pino, Giardino, Chièn, Cà dei Mori, la Seva and la Monda, and the line of houses along the shore. The old church on the hill lost its parish and was reduced to serving as the cemetery chapel until the seventeenth century; a bomb in the Second World War broke its roof open, and it stayed that way for years. Restoration began in 1995 and was the first in Liguria to lift its materials by helicopter — there being no road to it. The twentieth century's own contribution was subtraction: the Aurelia and mass tourism filled the narrow strip with building, and the railway that had cut through the village left it altogether.

Verified against Wikipedia, October 2026.

← Back to Varigotti overview

Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against 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 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., 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., 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 locality was constituted a free autonomous comune with Napoleonic rule and the creation of the Ligurian Republic. In 1853 Varigotti counted around 700 inhabitants, devoted above all to fishing, to the cultivation of olives and citrus, and to the extraction of stone from a quarry. In 1869, while the works of construction of the Genoa-Ventimiglia railway line were in full swing, Varigotti was aggregated -- not without resistance -- to the borgo of Finale Pia, together with Calvisio, also an autonomous comune at the time. In 1927 it finally became an integral part of the newly constituted comune of Finale Ligure., 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., 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 church of San Lorenzo rises halfway up the slope on the promontory at Punta Crena, dominating the so-called Baia dei Saraceni, natural port of the rione of Varigotti at Finale Ligure. The church is of a single nave with a square apse lit by single-light windows and a more recent part -- the wall towards the sea -- on which two doors in Gothic style open; the brick cross-vault of the sacristy also dates from the same period, the fourteenth century. The wall on the upslope side should instead be earlier than the year 1000. No longer a parish, the old church was later used as the chapel of the cemetery until the seventeenth century. The church was the target of a bomb during the Second World War, which damaged its roof, left broken open for many years. From 1995 the building was the object of restoration works, the first in Liguria in which a helicopter was used to lift the materials. The numerous finds of imperial and early medieval date recovered in the area of the ancient church, among them a sarcophagus of the third or fourth century, are today conserved at the archaeological museum of Finale, housed in the rooms of the ancient conventual complex of Santa Caterina at Finalborgo., 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., A Disney-Mondadori comic album, "Paperino e la notte del Saraceno", is largely set in Varigotti, in particular on the watchtower of the hill; the album also has a publication in the Latin language, with the title "Donaldus Anas atque nox saraceni". In the "Filippo" apartment building a ceramic, "Le Quattro Stagioni", by the sculptor Felice Mina is kept. Among the noted holidaymakers of the past is the writer Gina Lagorio, to whom a beach is dedicated; among the more recent, the television presenter Michelle Hunziker. The first chapters of the novel "Ma, insomma, che cosa vuoi?" by V. A. Kocetov (Edizioni Samona e Savelli, 1970) are set in Varigotti and its surroundings. The final scenes of the fiction Blanca, broadcast on Rai 1 in the month of December 2021, were filmed at the tower of Punta Crena at Varigotti. (October 2026).