FINALMARINA Finalmarina,like all towns on the Riviera,has an historical center created in the Middle-Age with the aggregation of houses along the main coastal road.For that reason it has a linear structure and runs parallel to the coast.To the North it is closed by Via Torino and seawards by the palm-flanked Via Concezione and Via San Pietro.
The ancient town, howener, was not solely a centre of fishermen, but the strategic and commercial reference point of ancient routes and fulcrum of Spanish expansion in Liguria.Philip V,in 1702,was a guest at Buraggi palace, which crosses over via Concezione the domination by Genoa left its mark in important buildinqs and churches. The great Victor Emmanuel II° Square, originally the Finale harbour, closed to the North by a XV Century colonnade on which rest ancient mansions, divides the two splendid roads overlooking the shore-line and leads to the inner roads which cross, lenghtwise, the heart of the historical centre.
Here and in the alleys perpendicular to the coast which link the inner part of the town with the promenade,it is possible to read an ancient town layout system in the houses typical of the sea-towns, in the nobiliary palaces of Via Roma, in certain XVI Century portals.Worthy of a stop are also the Margaret of Austria arch(Victor Emmanuel 11 Square) built in 1666 to commemorate the passage through Finale of the Infanta of Spain,travelling to become the bride of Leopold 1 and that erected in 1836 in honour of Charles Albert, commemorative of the Caprazoppa Tunnel.
This latter arch leads to Via Colombo which continues in to Via Roma and to the San Giovanni Battista Church, built in 1619 in the style of Genoese baroque churches. Among the religious monuments of Finalmarina are to be recalled the ruins of the San Giovanni Battista Parish Church to which access is gained by the passing from Via Mazzini to Via Brunenqhi, after having passed beneath the railway. It is a place (V-VI century) of great charm because around it developed one of the early Finalese Christian communities, witnessed also by the funeral inscription, IV-V century box-type tombs, christeninq fonts. When leaving Finalmarina, in the direction of Finalpia, the Castel Franco bastions erected by the Republic of Genoa,in 1365-67,are to the left.
Lapped by the waves when it was built,it later became the pivot of the defensive system of Spain which,in the XVII century enlargened it with fortifications.The large inner square is dominated by the octogoanal-shaped San Bartolomeo Tower. FINALPIA To the east,linked de facto with Finalmarina by a single long beach,one of the airiest beaches of Liguria, lies the town of Finalpia. The name derives from the abbey church Santa Maria Pia,around which is the oldest nucleus of historical centre, situated at the mouth of the Sciusa torrent. The visit in centred on Benedictine monastery and the annexed shrine church. Access is gained from the bridge leading to the square facing the road to Calvisio.The oriqin of monastic cell dates back to the Middle-Aqe, inasmuch as it was an emanation of the older monastery of Spigno. In 1476, the Del Carretto family, gentry of the zone, called to Finalpia the 01ivetani Benedictine friars, who arrived there in 1477 and, at once, commenced their pastoral and welfare activities in favour of the local youth, to whom they taught the art of building and sailing fishing-boats.
As testimony of their initial zeal,there remain the early parish-records, dating from 1481 to 1592. In 1491, the Benedictine friars commenced the construction of their monastery and of the new church.The first, endowed with two XVI Century style cloisters, has reached unaltered the early part of this century; the church, instead, between 1724 and 1729, was radically rebuilt in the late-barique style of time; thus the ancient construction, of which remain the very fine belfry, ennobled by four series of double lancet windows surmonted by small arches, and a few pointed Gothic arches visible in the precincts of the vestry. Still today the monks dedicate themselves to different activities, among which the production of honey and other bee-keeping derivates, on sale at the friary lodqe. Visitts to the Benedictine include the two cloisters and the Capitular Hall, wherein has been set up a small museum in which have been gathered objets d'art, statues, painting, antiphonaries, engravings.
The historical importance of the Finalpia Abbey, deprived of its monks and emptied of its treasures by the Napoleonic laws of 1799,is witnessed by papal bulls and by visits of illustrious personages. FINALBORGO CHURCH OF SAN BIAGIO Entrance is gained throuqh the Reale doorway: on the left is the unfinished facade of the Church of San Biagio rebuilt during the baroque period on the site of the previous late Gothic style church, of which remain the apse incorporated in the walls and the octagonal belfry, rebuilt in 1463 following the destruction of the town by Genoa in 1449.The belfry rests on a tower on the town wall and is lightened by a triple series of mullioned windows and by the cusp. THE "BORGO" The visit to the "Borgo", or old part of the town, continues in the Piazza Garibaldi on to which converge Via Gallesio, , San Rocco, Nicotera on the Testa Gate side and the Via Al municipio, Benenati, Torcelli which come out in the Piazza del Tribunale.
Here are to be found interesting slate doorways, craftsmen' shops and, on the days when the antiques-market is held, colourful stalls. The Palazzo del Tribunale, originally of the XIV Century but restructured in 1462 and later in 1781 by order of the Genoese Governor Giovanni Benedetto Centurione, was the administrative and judiciary seat of the marguisate. Palazzo Ricci, another fine Renaissace building endowed with double lancet windows, overlooks Via Al Municipio. THE SANTA CATERINA CLOISTERS AND THE CIVIC MUSEUM Going along Via Nicotera we arrive in the Piazza santa Caterina wherein is preserved the remains of the convent founded in 1359 by the Del carretto family. It is possible to see the two great cloisters (built towards the end of the XV century by order of Cardinal Carlo Domenico Del carretto) and the Civic Museum of Finale (set up on the upper f10or of the first cloister).
CASTEL GAVONE The visit to Finalborgo ends with the walk to Castel Gavone. We leave Piazza del tribunale by Via Beretta and go along a stretch of the road opened by the Spanish, in 1666, to link their possession of Finale with the district of Milan throuqh the Bormida Valley. We go beyond the San Giovanni fort, built by the Spanish in 1640-1644 incorporating in same the medieval tower joined to the Finalborgo walls and in a few minutes c1imb we reach our goal. Castel Gavone was surely the finest exemple of military and residential architecture of Liguria. Regretfully, the senate of Genoa turned it to ruin in 1714 and it was not the first time that Genoa was ruthless against the fortalice.In fact Giovanni I° Del carretto had rebuilt it after 1448-49 and Alfonso I° had endowed it at the end of the century with the stupendous tower known as the Torre Dei Diamanti.
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