Finalborgo

The walls you see today were rebuilt in 1452 by Giovanni I Del Carretto, after the Genoese had destroyed them in the war of 1447–1450. Several semicircular towers survive along the circuit; the most impressive is on the south side. There are four main gates.

• Porta Testa: dated 1452 by an inscription in Gothic letters, and also called Porta San Giorgio. Its better-known name recalls the heads of executed criminals once displayed here. The clock tower stands above it.
• Porta Reale: built in 1702, with a large Del Carretto coat of arms beside it. It replaced the medieval entrance in the Spanish period; the painted architecture with the Savoy crest dates from the 19th century.
• Porta Romana, also called Porta del Mulino, on the north side.
• Porta Mezzaluna: the highest gate, at the foot of the hill. The Strada Beretta to the castles starts here.

The main church has a layered history. The first Gothic church inside the walls was built in 1372–1375; in the mid-17th century it was almost entirely demolished and rebuilt in Baroque style, with the floor plan turned by ninety degrees. The new basilica was finished in 1659 and consecrated in 1690. The façade was never completed.

The symbol of Finalborgo is the octagonal bell tower: it stands on a semicircular tower of the town walls, a unique case in Liguria, and was rebuilt by Giovanni I after 1452. Inside, look for the white marble pulpit of 1765 by Pasquale Bocciardo and the tomb of Sforza Andrea Del Carretto, the last marquis, carved by Battista Orsolino in 1604 for the church of Santa Caterina and later moved here.

The convent of Santa Caterina was founded in 1359 by the Del Carretto family, who used it as their burial place. Dominican friars lived here from 1381 to 1802; from 1864 until the 1980s the complex was a prison. Restoration completed in 2004 reopened the church, with early 15th-century frescoes of the life of the Virgin, the bell tower and two Renaissance cloisters in Finale stone.

On the south side of the church, look for the two walled-up Gothic doorways known as the “Women’s” and the “Men’s” door. The Oratorio dei Disciplinanti, in the same complex, hosts temporary exhibitions.

On Piazza del Tribunale stands the palace from which the Del Carretto governed the marquisate; it later housed the courts under the Spanish and the Genoese. It already existed in the 14th century and was remodelled in 1462 by Giovanni I: the façade keeps its 15th-century painted decoration. Palazzo Arnaldi, with a Baroque stucco façade, faces the same square.

The rest of the village is best discovered by wandering from square to square. Palazzo Ricci, founded around 1460, is one of the earliest Renaissance buildings in Liguria and was Finalborgo’s town hall until 1927. On Piazza Aycardi is Palazzo Brunengo with its double-arched loggia; Palazzo Cavassola once hosted Pope Pius VII. Piazza Garibaldi is the meeting point, with outdoor tables.

The theatre was built between 1804 and 1806, in the Napoleonic era, inside the college of the Piarist Fathers founded with a bequest from Giovanni Andrea Aycardi. It is the oldest 19th-century theatre in Liguria to keep its original stalls and boxes. Closed in 1965 for safety reasons, it has been restored and now opens to the public on set dates: check the town’s event calendar.

Leave through Porta Mezzaluna and, after a five-minute climb on the Strada Beretta, you reach the fort the Spanish built in the first half of the 17th century around a medieval tower. Partly demolished by Genoa in 1713, it became a prison in 1822 and stayed one until the early 20th century: prisoners’ graffiti survive on the slate slabs by the cells. Entry is free, and the terraces look over the rooftops and the valley.

Beyond the castle the Strada Beretta reaches Perti, the hamlet on the hill. The church of Sant’Eusebio has an 11th-century Romanesque crypt and a 15th-century bell tower decorated with majolica bowls and Spanish azulejo tiles. Nearby is Nostra Signora di Loreto, known as the church of the Five Bell Towers for its five slender spires: a small centrally planned church from the late 15th century, inspired by Florentine architecture. Interior visits are guided and must be booked through the archaeological museum.