Altitude: 25 m a.s.l.
Area: 18 sq km
Distance from Imperia: 41 km
Inhabitants: in 1881: 1523 - in 2017: 5622
Patron Saint Day: January 20th - San Sebastiano
Information: Municipality phone 0184 28771
The importance of Camporosso is confirmed by a document dated 17 April 1487, with which the municipal Council of Ventimiglia implicitly recognized the importance assumed by this hamlet, in which, like in other Ventimiglia villages such as Vallebona, San Biagio, Soldano and Vallecrosia, no debtor could be harassed on the feast day of San Marco, the saint of the village parish.
Built before the year 1000 as a settlement of people from Ventimiglia who cultivated the fields around there, in 1696 Camporosso became part of the "Magnificent Community of the Eight Places", an independent republic that also included Vallecrosia, Soldano, San Biagio, Borghetto San Nicolò, Vallebona, Sasso and Bordighera, dissolved in 1797 by Napoleon who brought its territories into the Ligurian Republic.
Visit of the town
Once in Camporosso park in the open space on the right and start walking along the central Via Eroi Camporossesi which leads into the large square where the Town Hall is located, equipped with an interesting library with rare editions and parchments.
Pass on the right under the low Municipal Loggia with stone seats and continue straight on; past the small aedicule, the window-door of an ancient shop opens at number 14, followed, above the vault on the right, by the plaque commemorating the birth of Francesco Maria Croese, the "holy father" died in 1866 and beatified in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.
In the square where you’ll arrive you’ll find the church of San Marco, originally of the fifteenth century but entirely rebuilt in the eighteenth century, with a bell tower decorated in yellow and bright green; the external left wall is propped up by the massive buttress of the original fifteenth-century construction and houses, in the loggia to the left of the facade, the monument to the local saint.
The church, with three naves, contains three polyptychs from the sixteenth century: upon entering, there is on the left "San Marco" by Stefano Adrechi da Nizza of 1533; in the second altar on the left is "Madonna with Child and Saints Giuliano and Bernardo" by Agostino Casanova of 1536, followed by "Martirio di San Sebastiano" attributed to a Ligurian painter of the sixteenth century.
Leaving the church and looking at the restored sundial in front of it, cross the churchyard proceeding to the left under the vaults, from which you’ll go right on Via Magenta; at the intersection turn left to get to the widening of Piazza Garibaldi under the portico, overlooked by a similar one surmounted by a half-column loggia with a small fresco.
Opposite is the marble staircase that leads to the small semicircular parvis with a column balustrade of the Baroque oratory of Suffragio of 1649, also called "dei Neri" after the color of the robe of the Confraternity that held sacred representations there; the building has two clocks on the façade, while on the wall of the house next to it is the dial of a sundial.
Continuing on, pass under the high vault that bears an emblem of 1907 with the invitation: "The hour presses, be industrious", reaching out of the walls the Baroque oratory of Annunziata, also called "dei Bianchi"; both confraternities have now become extinct.
Go back to the car and continue towards Dolceacqua.