Altitude: 12 m a.s.l.
Area: 31 sq km
Distance from Imperia: 20 km
Inhabitants: in 1881: 4494 - in 2017: 14060
Patron Saint Day: February 12th - St. Benedict
Information: Municipality phone 0184 476222
The first settlement of Ligurians on the sea and on the banks of the Tavia fluvius (today Argentina stream) is already reported in the 2nd century AD on the Itinerarium Provinciarum attributed to Antonino Pio, and later identified on the Tavola Peutingeriana (4th century AD) as "Costa Bellene", the Roman mangling of the original "Beleni" referred to the Celtic god Belen who was revered there.
However, indefensible from the Barbarian incursions, around the seventh century the Roman Tabia was abandoned and the inhabitants moved to the safer hill and founded Taggia.
In 1100 the Emperor of Germany brought the village as a fief under the control of the Marquises of Clavesana, who restored the mighty fortifications of the Acropolis, but awakened the concerns of the Genoese "allies" who therefore leveled the fortress; drastically reducing its defense capabilities, Genoa could easily exercise control over Taggia until 1498, when the town passed under Charles VII, king of France, who then sold it to the Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza, from whom it will then definitively pass under the dominion of the Savoys.
Visit of the town
Once in Arma di Taggia, drive along the seafront towards the west and after leaving the car continue on foot for about three hundred meters until you reach the small cave where - replacing the oldest sanctuary - the little church of Maria Vergine was built in 1625 with two stucco side altars and the central altar in inlaid marble, enriched by the statues of the Madonna and an angel. The vault of the church is that of the cave itself, in pudding stone; on the portal is the original 1625 plaque surmounted by the one that recalls the restorations of 1757 and 1814.
Exactly above the little church stands the mighty quadrangular Torre dell'Arma. The massive fortification was built in the sixteenth century facing the sea as a bulwark against the Saracens after a 1564 devastating raid by the "Turkish" Luzzalino who brought desolation throughout west Liguria from his Cap Ferrat lair; a plaque placed above the door remembers its inauguration date, March 25th, 1565.
Back to the car, retrace the whole promenade in reverse direction and, once again on Via Aurelia, heading East, just outside the town, take the detour to Taggia on the right. From the riverfront, upon reaching the department store on the right, turn left on Via Roma and continue up to Piazza Eroi Taggesi, whose central obelisk you’ll circumvent taking the left.
After 500 meters, at the junction with the factory with a chimney, go right and - after passing the small villa on the right with a small terrace supported by two stone caryatids - arrive at the clearing from which, going up the paved Salita San Domenico on the left, you’ll reach the Dominican convent. The structure, which with its rich library from the fifteenth century was for four centuries the main spiritual and cultural center of west Liguria, in the church of San Domenico preserves a series of paintings that represent the most important collection of antique paintings in the district.
The church, in Lombard Gothic style, was built by the Comacine masters Gasperino di Lancia and Filippo di Carlone in 1490. On the façade is a simple portal with a high pointed arch, decorated with a marble carved with the Virgin holding the dead Christ, and surmounted by a large single lancet window and the central oculus. The door on the left side has a marble architrave carved with the Virgin protecting the friars under her mantle, flanked on the left by St. Peter the Martyr who has a sword stuck in his back and a knife in his head, and on the right by St. Catherine with a Crucifix in the right hand and a heart in the left. The bell tower has a cusp top, with two orders of hanging arches.
The single nave interior is decorated with alternating white and black ashlars; the paintings preserved in it are, from the left: "Ascension of Christ to Heaven" by G.B. Trotti of Cremona, (called the "Molosso") of 1593, "Saint Rosa with Baby Jesus and Saint Vincenzo" by Gregorio de Ferrari (1600); "Crucifix with saints" by Emanuele Macario da Pigna (1540); the chapel, followed by the "Baptism of Jesus" by Ludovico Brea (1495), is decorated with the frescoes "Christ crowned with thorns" and "Last Supper". On the main altar is the altarpiece "Madonna della Misericordia" (1483) by Ludovico Brea, divided into nine compartments.
The right apse, where is also affixed a plaque of 1472, is dominated by the impressive extremely ancient olive wood crucifix from the late Middle Ages that probably comes from the pre-Romanesque church of Madonna del Canneto, which you will later see; below is the statue of the saint. Following is the polyptych "San Domenico among the Doctors" (1478) by Giovanni Canavesio, with the delightful upper compartment of "Madonna of the cherries"; again by Ludovico Brea, progenitor of the Ligurian-Nicoise school of painting, is the subsequent polyptych "Santa Caterina Between Sant'Agata and Santa Lucia", of 1488, while the fresco "Sant'Antonio" of 1613 is the work of Luigi Bertrando.
Also by Ludovico Brea are the altarpiece with the "Madonna of the Rosary" (1513), clearly in Renaissance style despite the stillness of the images, and the triptych "Annunciation between San Gregorio and San Sebastiano", originally a polyptych later mutilated of the tablets of the "Mysteries of the Rosary ". In the convent are preserved other works by Brea, such as "The Calvary of San Tomaso" of 1495 and the "Crucifixion" also of 1495, in the library; in the chapter house and in the refectory there are two Crucifixions by Canavesio, of which the "Crucifix with Madonna" is of 1482.
At the end of the right aisle on the right is the door to the cloister built in the fifteenth century using the twenty thirteenth-century stone columns from the Benedictine cloister of Canneto; on the right there is a double sundial, on the left the octagonal well. The uninterrupted succession of the doors that lead to the internal rooms opens on the cloister; on the one on the left corner there is an architrave from 1542 carved with the Virgin and the Child among abraded coats of arms, followed by that of the inner chapel, with a "Crucifixion" and "Saint Sebastian" fresco. The lunettes of the doors were all frescoed in the seventeenth century with scenes from the life of San Domenico explained by captions.
Leaving the convent, if you take the flat road on the left you’ll find the Bastione dell'Orso and then the Bastione del Ciazzo, sixteenth-century towers with truncated cone shape connected by sections of walls, with loopholes above the curb for the artillery as a defence from the raids by the Saracen pirates Dragut and Luzzalino (1543 - 1563).
Back to the convent, descend by car Salita San Domenico and park at the bottom of the descent; from there on foot take the left entering the village through Porta dell'Orso. In the historic center you will find signs with arrows showing different routes, each identified by a number; we have chosen the tour that we’ll describe below.
Proceeding along Via Lercari pass the architrave with a Trigram at number 33 and the other one at number 31 carved with heraldic shields later abraded, among flower vases; the bas-relief at number 10, not intact on the left end and carved with a splendid "Nativity" depicting Mary, Joseph, the Child and two angels, is attributed to the Gaggini brothers.
In the square with a sundial on the side of the church, on which the measurement units of "canna" and "cannella" are affixed, you’ll find on the left the fountain called "Brakì delle Confrarie", built in 1462 by Donato De Lancia with an octagonal stone basin and a central column in grooved stone enriched with masks. Under the arch that you are facing there is at number 16 an archaic plaque carved with Christ among angels.
Continue to the left past the fountain till you get to the churchyard surrounded by the portico of the church of Santi Jacobo e Filippo built in 1670 to a design by Bernini on the pre-existing Romanesque building, with a Baroque façade dominated by the large marquisial marble shield. Inside the chapel on the right is the canvas "San Giovanni Evangelista" of 1546 attributed to Ludovico Brea, and other paintings attributed to Giovanni and Luca Cambiaso; in the central chapel on the left is the venerated statue of the miraculous "Madonna di Taggia" surrounded by numerous votive offerings.
Leaving the church, on the right at number 17 is Palazzo Lombardi with a black stone portal and carved architrave with an abraded coat of arms and the writing "Soli Deo, honor et gloria"; on the left, at the bottom of the arcade, a monolith with a cross is placed on the ground. Entering the street between the church and Palazzo Lombardi, after a few steps you’ll end up on Via Soleri, the heart of the town in the Renaissance period, of which it preserves numerous testimonies.
On the left is Palazzo Curlo of 1448, with a portico supported by four Gothic arches on stone pillars; looking up you can see the frescoed vaults of the upper gallery. Opposite there is Palazzo Asdente-Carrega, with a plaque of 1431 carved with a coat of arms, later abraded; under the portico at number 15 there is another architrave with an abraded emblem, an Agnus, a Trigram and the letters SA, and another monolith of 1473 carved with an Agnus between abraded shields is affixed under the nearby window, from which you can see the internal atrium with the marble balustrades of the staircase.
Further on at number 18 there are portals in black stone with two plaques carved one with the Virgin and the other with an Agnus among angels and the inscription: "Per multas tribulationes oportet nos introire in regnum Dei" (to enter the kingdom of God we must face many tribulations); the jambs are decorated with floral motifs.
Proceeding, at number 14 go past the large massive monolith of 1491, very elaborate, affixed down below the aedicule, reaching the sixteenth-century Palazzo Curlo, formerly Spinola, in squared stones later plastered, on which at number 5 is the portal in black stone with a richly carved architrave and jambs decorated with floral motifs. Almost opposite, at number 10, there is another black stone portal which has carved two medallions in the jambs, with a Trigram on the left and the stonemason’s initials A M on the right.
You have thus arrived to Piazza Cavour where stands the rich Oratory of Santi Sebastiano and Fabiano, also called "dei Bianchi" because of the color of the coat of the Confraternity, built in 1454 and later restructured in Baroque style. On the high altar there is a suggestive wooden crucifix from the Middle Ages, with a small angel at the ribs of the ascetic figure of Christ, and the great icon created by Donato di Ormea in 1529. On the walls are large Baroque canvases by the local painters Giovanni Battista Oggero and Pietro Vivaldi; the interior is rich in marble, columns, stuccoes and statues of the same period.
Leaving the oratory you’ll see in front of you another plaque with an Agnus of 1490 and, under the loggia, the lintel of the portal carved with a partially abraded heraldic coat of arms. After passing the busts of Eleonora Curlo and Doctor Soleri, continuing along Via Cavour you’ll arrive to Piazza dei Caduti with its monument.
On the left there is a suggestive medieval square with a beautiful stone and masks basin-fountain, fronted onto the facade of the oratory of the Holy Trinity or "dei Rossi", built in 1475 and later rebuilt in Baroque style; inside it has polychrome carved marbles and rich gold decorations. Continuing past the monument to the Fallen, pass next to Bastione del Ponte, a fortification built in 1541 that preserves the loopholes and the machicolation in defense of the access gate.
You have thus arrived at the medieval bridge with an aedicule built in 1450, three meters wide, which crosses the Argentina stream on sixteen arches with a rope of eighteen meters for a total length of two hundred and sixty meters; the two last eastern arches, in regularly squared blocks, date back to the original bridge of the 13th century.
From the beginning of the bridge walk about a hundred meters upstream on the paved Via I Maggio and after the large modern block take the cobbled road on the left that goes up to the seventeenth-century church of San Benedetto Revelli; from there climb the cobbled ramp on the right and thus reach the church of Santa Maria del Canneto, formerly officiated by the Benedictines coming from the Abbey of Pedona. The original structure is one of the oldest in western Liguria: the crypt dates back to 600 AD.
The quadrangular bell tower is from the 12th century; it has slits at the bottom and then, going up, a single-light window surmounted by a mullioned window, both decorated with hanging arches, another mullioned window and then the cusp-cover with four other smaller corner cusps. To the right of the bell tower is the small stone apse reconstructed on the original base.
The portal built in 1467 by the Comacine master Gasperino de Lancia comes from the ruins of the nearby church of Sant'Anna: it has a Gothic arch with the Virgin carved in the center with angels between two abraded shields. From the small windows on the façade you can see the interior, with the staircase leading down to the crypt, the remains of the original pre-Romanesque church and the frescoes on the walls: the "Life of Mary" is attributed to Ludovico Brea, while the frescoes of the vaults and lunettes, the altarpiece of the "Resurrection" and that of the "Virgin with Son and Saints Crispino and Crispiniano" are the work of Giovanni and Luca Cambiaso (1547).
Go back down the cobbled steps and turn right past the Revelli church; after passing, at number 8, by the simple portal with a Trigram, enter the town through the well-equipped Porta del Colletto of 1541, which preserves the original hinges on the jambs and the loopholes on the wall on the right. Inside is the stone arch with the irons of the second gate, protected by the low external slit on the right and by the two machicolations above; after the door open up two other slits from which it was possible to strike whoever had nevertheless managed to pass.
Walk along Via Dalmazzo to admire at number 32 the Gothic plaque depicting the Resurrection, faced by a lintel reused as a bench, and at number 24 the portal of the De Fornari house with an architrave carved in a Trigram supported by two angels. Then pass the aedicule on the right and then the fountain and climb the staircase on the right which, passing under the frescoed arch, goes beyond the gate whose hinges remain, runs along the sixteenth-century walls with loopholes and leads to the Capuchin convent of 1622. The church is characterized by the chapels of the Curlo, Lombardi and Lercari families, on the high altar there is a beautiful little temple in finely carved wood of 1702.
Go back to Via Dalmazzo, which was the main street of the town until the fifteenth century, and past the archaic house with an ogival stone portal at number 38, you’ll reach the fourteenth-century Porta di Barbarasa behind which a small seventeenth-century plaque is affixed on the right; beyond the door lies the oldest part of the village, which has remained intact since the early Middle Ages.
At this point a choice has to be made between the richest itinerary suggested by the arrows (continue left on Via Dalmazzo) and the more archaic one (go up on the right on Via Littardi), which then join together; we will here describe them both.
Those who continue along Via Dalmazzo will find the 1478 architrave of Casa Porro at number 103, with a Trigram in a crown of acanthus leaves between two coats of arms that survived the Napoleonic purge. Past at number 38 the ogival stone portal, you’ll find after the arch on the left the semicircular staircase of the house with mullioned windows hidden by shutters; above the arch there is a rectangular plaque which is by now indecipherable due to the wear of time.
At number 42 there is an architrave with a Trigram between abraded coats of arms, and under the vault, at number 127, has miraculously survived a fifteenth-century door completely carved with a star motif, with the external part of the original lock made of wrought iron. After the vault, another portal of 1565 opens up on the right with abraded coats of arms, as are the ones that flank the archaic Trigram of the architrave on the left at number 133.
More fortunate was instead the Fiormaggi family, living at number 54. Indeed, they placed the plaque with the Trigram and family crest under the architrave inside the door, therefore when Napoleon arrived, he removed the emblem on the external architrave, where now remain only the friezes and the date (1565), but he saved the second one of 1596, still visible today entering the atrium.
Past the vault, after another architrave with a coat of arms at number 143, at number 149 you’ll find the bas-relief of Casa Capponi, richly carved by Gaggini. Less ambitious than his noble colleagues, Capponi did not want to shamelessly flaunt his coat of arms but inserted it modestly in the two small shields on the sides of the composition, consisting of a Gothic Trigram in oak leaves with a crown supported by angels; the coat of arms thus escaped from the Napoleonic censors and was therefore preserved up to us.
A little further on you’ll pass on the right a stone portal with an ogival arch and on the left the window-door of an ancient shop; there on the right is Via cardinal Gastaldi, yet you can still continue briefly along Via Dalmazzo to go and see at the end of the street the sixteenth-century Porta Pretoria, defended by loopholes on the external walls, from which you can go back and take Via Gastaldi.
Those who at Porta Barbarasa have chosen to take Via Littardi will enter the heart of the most archaic Taggia: once beyond this 14th century gate, you’ll pass under the double stone arch of Porta du Viu, which closed the town until the year 1000. In the house on the left a loophole is preserved and above the arch of the gate, part of the archaic walls with small windows still survive; on the right there is a stone portal with an ogival arch.
Once you have passed the vault, turn to see the overhanging Baroque aedicule, and then continue under the arch blackened by smoke on the left, looking at another stone portal with an ogival arch and another one on the right under the next vault. Along the way the dark and narrow alleys of the early medieval village branch off; the Napoleonic censors evidently did not pass through there and thus the heraldic shields of the architrave that flank the central Trigram with a turreted castle were saved at number 17 above the window-door of a fourteenth-century workshop.
Past at number 27 another simpler architrave carved in a Gothic Trigram, you’ll arrive at the widening with a stone wash basin on the right and a portal with a simple stone arch of 1562 surmounted by an aedicule on the left; continuing further you’ll pass under the Clavesana towers and Palace built around the year one thousand, with a high central slit and machicolation at the top right under the vault.
To enjoy at least partially the other itinerary that rejoins there, you can descend a few more steps on the nearby Via Dalmazzo and take the left under the vault to see the beautiful already described portal of the Capponi family on the right, thirty meters after the window-door.
Go up Via Gastaldi under the Clavesana towers and take the left on Via Santa Lucia, observing at number 4 the interior of the staircase with narrow frescoed cross vaults and then, passing under the vault at number 7, the simple carved architrave with heraldic crest between floral decorations.
A little further on you’ll find on the window at number 11 an archaic architrave carved in a Gothic Trigram; after observing the stone pointed arch that opens on the low alley, pass under the archivolt that has on the right the ogival stone arch and on the left the square windows.
After passing the recently restored Baroque aedicule, you’ll find a black stone portal with a Trigram between abraded shields under the last vault on the left at number 14. You have now arrived to the end of the town which you can leave through Porta Sottana built around the year 1000, defended outside by the trapezoidal slit on the right. From there climb along the steep ramp up to the sixteenth-century church of Santa Lucia outside the walls, with a trussed roof and a tiny churchyard with seats.
The official itinerary recommends continuing to the Acropolis, therefore you can climb up there, continuing past the church on the cement ramp and then taking the cobbled mule track on the right up to the clearing overlooking the village.
The extraordinary strategic position of this hill has made it, since the times of Rotari (641 AD), the ideal stronghold for the settlement of defensive fortifications, gradually destroyed throughout the centuries and immediately rebuilt even stronger; of course also Genoa participated in their distruction and as you have seen before it completely pulled them down in 1203, yet the Saracen incursions later justified the reconstruction of these sixteenth-century fortifications.
Actually not much is visible today: beyond the circular tower with high quadrangular slits, overhanging the cliff are the high walls that made the Acropolis inaccessible then to the enemies and today to us all. Those who have no particular interest in the landscape and in military constructions of the sixteenth century can therefore abstain from trekking up there: other towers identical to this are much more accessible near the Dominican convent, as already mentioned.
Once you reach the church, you can go up a little further and immediately enter the walls on the right under the entirely plastered archivolt, crossing the gate that preserves the original hinges on the left. After the arched stone portal on the left, continue keeping the same level to reach, after the archway with other arched portals and the archaic house in square blocks, an ancient “brakì” located on the left above the small grassy area.
In the stone basin of the archaic medieval fountain, water gushes from a small channel that sprouts from the overlying wall in squared ashlars, one of which is completely carved in Gothic characters with the brief history of the fountain that also recalls the name of the farmers who built it in 1455. From there go down the ramp paved in porphyry along which ruins and restored houses alternate and take the right on Via Segneri reaching the large vault in which are the now walled stone arched portals of the medieval Town Hall.
Cross the Loggia and take the left at the intersection, then left again under the other vault and then go right; after the cobbled widening pass on the right the wash-house you have already seen and go back down on the right under the already seen Clavesana towers.
Continuing to descend straight along Via Gastaldi, past the vault with the now unreadable portal architrave at number 14, arrive at the small square where is preserved on the right under the vault, the fifteenth-century carved wooden door with a lintel carved in a Trigram in a tondo between abraded shields; from the vault you can get to the church square which you can cross to the right, turning right after the fountain to go back to the car.
By car reach the riverside going up to the modern bridge that you’ll cross immediately turning right to park four hundred meters ahead near the yellow house that you’ll see on the left.
There stands the small church of San Martino, one of the oldest of western Liguria: built by the Benedictine monks of Pedona (Borgo San Dalmazzo) in 600 AD, the small building has a stone round arched door and two small oculi at the top, surmounted on the left by the small bell tower; on the right side there are two very small splayed lancet windows and the ogival arch stone portal of the now walled lateral door.
The interior is decorated in the apse with a series of frescoes dating back to the fifteenth century: in the bowl-shaped vault dominates the figure of Christ among the angels, with on the left Saint Catherine and at the bottom right Saint Matthew and Saint John; at the top there is the most archaic fresco, perhaps from the year OneThousand, with a naive scene of the Last Judgment.
Back to the car retrace the bridge and take the road on the right that goes up the Argentina valley heading to Badalucco. After about five kilometers you’ll find on the right side of the road, on a hill almost entirely surrounded by the river, the few ruins of the Castle of Campomarzio now almost entirely covered by vegetation.
The particularly strategic position of this formidable bastion, that controls the only access to the upper valley, has always made it the site of fortifications of Byzantine origin, whose oldest remains date back to 600 AD; here also stood the now disappeared church of San Giorgio.
On the Sunday following the anniversary of St. Mary Magdalene (July 22) is held the traditional "Ball of Death", which takes place for the feast of St. Mary Magdalene of the Woods.
The feast is held in a Benedictine hermitage located in a wood about three kilometers from Taggia, where, on the eve of the day, the “maddalenanti” arrive with their president, the constable, and they spend the night there, while the next day the population arrives from Taggia to attend the "Ball of Death", performed by a young couple.
Another celebration deeply felt by the people from Taggia is that of St. Benedict Revelli, which takes place on February 12th in memory of a historical episode that took place in 1626 when the town, thanks to the intercession of the saint, was saved from the consequences of the then-ongoing war between the Frank-Piedmontese and the Genoese.
On the evening of the Saturday and Sunday closest to February 12, dozens of huge bonfires are lit in the city streets and squares along with the “fùrgari”, very original fireworks.