Altitude: 385 m a.s.l.
Area: 11 sq km
Distance from Imperia: 11 km
Inhabitants: in 1881: 1373 - in 2017: 391
Patron Saint Day: January 17th - Sant'Antonio Abate
Information: Municipality phone 0183 282053
Together with Pantasina and Pianavia, Vasia was a fiefdom of the Ventimiglias until 1579 when Filiberto of Savoy bought the entire area which remained under Sabaudian domination ever since.
In the area of Vasia is particularly documented the presence of Benedictine monks from the Lerins Islands, who were called in 1199 by the inhabitants of Vasia to take possession of the Romanesque church of San Martino.
In return for the work carried out by the religious people, the inhabitants committed themselves to send four “milgoriensum” coins (an ancient Provençal currency) or twelve pounds of oil to the Lerins abbey each year.
The presence and work of the Benedictines radically transformed the territory of Vasia through the construction of dry stone walls by digging the earth into the very cracks of the rock, thanks to a huge work conducted with tenacity and perseverance by the inhabitants of the valley.
Once the terracing was completed, the cultivation of olive trees was introduced, with the production of olives of the refined Taggiasca quality, spread over a well-circumscribed area, extended from Turbia to Capo Mele and inland to Pieve di Teco and Triora, while beyond Capo Mele prospered the colombara and mortina types of olive.
Visit of the town
Just before reaching the town, after passing the bare oratory of San Rocco, a path branches off to the right which, in two kilometers of narrow and winding dirt road among the olive groves, leads to the Romanesque church of Sant'Anna; to reach it, continue past the built-up area to a chapel from which you can turn left, at the next junction turn right, and after about a hundred meters you’ll come to a widening from which you can take the flat road to the left, reaching the church three hundred meters after.
The building of clear Romanesque style was remodeled in the seventeenth century, when the two side chapels (of which a column along the right side is preserved) were demolished, the internal apse was rebuilt and the massive cross vaulted portico with seats was added.
The façade is decorated with a monolithic architrave carved with a Madonna, Sant'Anna and the Baby, of 1493, surmounted by a rose window, and another overdoor carved in 1513 with grotesque figures enriches the right side door; in the apse, which has preserved the original lowered arched single-light windows and the hanging arches in the attic, opens up a second small rose window. The internal nave, paved with the original flooring, is covered with trusses.
Once back to the village, park in the square where the church and the oratory are located.
The church of Sant'Antonio Abate was built in the sixteenth century on the oldest building of which the churchyard preserves the capitals and a column chunk; the entrance door opens on the left side, protected by the arcade to whose side stands the bell tower rebuilt in 1806.
The interior, with three naves divided by stone columns that are now plastered, preserves three polyptychs all reproducing the Virgin and Child surrounded by saints: the one in the choir to the right of the main altar is by Pietro Guidi (XV century) and comes from the little church of Sant'Anna; it is faced by that of the late fifteenth century transferred there from the archaic little church of San Martino which you will later visit; finally the smaller one, preserved in the chapel to the right of the high altar, dates back to the sixteenth century and is the work of Guido De Rossi (1580-85).
Opposite the church is the Baroque massif oratory of the Immaculate Conception which houses the wooden statue of the Risen Christ, the object of solemn celebrations with a procession at Easter.
Back to the car, continue along the Provincial Road, taking, in the center of the first curve to the right, the detour flanked by the Way of the Cross aedicules, which, turning left at the junction, takes you in less than a kilometer to the graveyard on which stands the little church of San Martino recently restored. Around the year 1000 was built there the oldest monastery of the valley, which was then abandoned in the sixteenth century, leaving the rustic church isolated.
The low square bell tower with single lancet windows in the belfry is typically Romanesque, as well as the simple gabled façade with a raised central part, and the bare portal surmounted by a lunette and four small quadrangular pyramid-shaped pinnacles on the roof; the side door opens on the right side, preceded by a semi-circular stone staircase.
Of the two chapels that originally flanked the quadrangular apse, the one on the left has been preserved, covered with "ciappe" as the apse; of the other one there are the internal walls in which are niches at the top, and at the bottom the opening that led to the crypt under the apse.
Return to the Provincial Road turning right and after a kilometer and a half you’ll reach the hamlet of Torretta.
On the right side of the road there is the small church of the Immaculate Conception with a low bell tower and a porch with seats that anticipates the simple façade with the niche plundered of the beautiful statuette of the Virgin which it housed until a few years ago; inside there is the Baroque altarpiece with an inlaid polychrome marble balustrade.
To the left of the church rises the concrete ramp that leads to the trough; going up another twenty meters and turning towards the valley you can see, incorporated between the houses of the village, the tower that gave it its name (i.e. Torretta, which means “little tower”), today cut off and covered by a single sloping roof.
Back to the car continue reaching, seven hundred meters further, the church of Sant'Annunziata of Pianavia, with a bell tower on the left and a portico on the right, which preserves the eighteenth-century "Annunciation" by Antonio Calzia from Villaguardia.
Two hundred meters further on, to the left of the Provincial Road branches off the road that descends to Prelà Castello, dominated by the massive ruins of the Castle of Pietralata Soprana (not open to visitors), residence of the Lascaris since 1350.
The fortification, with a square plan, opens its menacing slits towards the street; behind the tower built on the rock remain the ruins of the other circular bastion; unfortunately the residential building was completely demolished and in its place there is now a vineyard.
The fortress was over time disputed to the Lascaris by the Clavesanas, the Grimaldis, the Dorias, the Republic of Genoa and the Counts of Ventimiglia and Tenda, who conquered it and then sold it to the Dukes of Savoy.
It really makes a certain impression to compare such a rich and tumultuous past with the desolated present that you have before you: Prelà Castello was in the Middle Ages the most vital center of the valley, but the inexorable constant demographic decline (the permanent inhabitants are now no more than around twenty) seems to reiterate the now irremediable condemnation of the village to conclude its historical parable in the abandonment.
Go down to visit the town: leaving the car two hundred meters ahead, enter the built-up area and, past the loggia in the alley on the right, come to the little square where the church of the Saints Jacobo et Nicolao Mirensi stands, with an octagonal spire bell tower covered in scales and the right side of the portico walled to house the parish; in front there is the oratory of Santa Croce and Maddalena Addolorata of 1587, with a sundial on the façade.
Preceded by a wide staircase, the portal of the church bears -carved on the overdoor- a cartouche with the inscription from 1559 that recalls the munificence of Count Claudio Lascaris of Tenda who contributed to the construction: "Vive diu felix, claris natalibus ortus - o Claudi, gregis maxima cura tui "("Live long happy, Claudio of noble birth, with the utmost care of your flock").
The jambs are carved with floral, animal and human figures; in the center of the overdoor there is a quadruped of difficult identification.
Back to the Provincial Road, continuing to climb, you’ll reach Pantasina in less than two kilometers where you can park at the crossroads on which stands the parish church of the Transfiguration, built in 1434 and later remodeled in Baroque style, faced by the Baroque oratory of Santa Caterina decorated on the façade with the stucco of the saint with her wheel of torture.
Of the original church was saved, on the architrave of the left side door, the high-relief with an Agnus between two angels, a cartouche with the date on the right and a Trigram in a radial pattern on the left; inside, to the left of the two columns that support the choir of the organ, there is a rustic stone stoup.
Follow by car the sign to Carpasio on the road that goes up behind the church and, past on the right the wash-house with stone basins under the vault covered with "ciappe", park two hundred meters ahead near the small road that branches off to the left.
From there in a hundred meters you’ll reach the aedicule that faces Palazzo Lascaris a little further down, whose portal has the architrave carved with the emblem of the family between the words: "ANNE TENDE CLAUDIO FRANSOSE" and "IN ETERNUM FIDE SERVABO" (I will keep faith forever), and the date 1545 between the letters G and B; to the left is carved the coat of arms of the Tendas and to the right that of the Ventimiglias.
A rosette is carved at the top and bottom of the only remaining jamb, while in the center is carved the medallion with a rare female guardian sorceress.
Going back take the small road on the left, and past the oven in the corner of the building on the left you’ll find after two hundred meters the little church of San Giuseppe of 1858, with a small square bell tower on the left side; further on stands the little church of San Damiano among the olive trees.
Back to the paved road take the car and continue towards Carpasio; after less than a kilometer you’ll encounter on the left the panoramic square on which stands the Sanctuary of Madonna della Guardia, a building in squared stones of medieval style but of recent construction; on the edge of the churchyard a small aedicule with a bell faces the valley.
Back to the church square, take the descent to the right, passing a hundred meters further on the right a monolith base of a press machine.
Proceeding downstream, you can visit some tiny hamlets: in Praelo, past the millstones at the side of the road, park in the little square where are the tiny oratory of 1730 and the coeval church of San Bartolomeo; in front of them stands the manor house which has a plaque carved with the Azonof crest above the marble portal.
In Caneto, after the bottleneck, past on the right a manor house with a sundial on the façade, you’ll arrive to the roundabout from which you can access further down the Baroque church of the Immaculate Conception; in Case Carli the oratory of San Sebastiano has a stone slab of the Twenties affixed on the façade praising the "Italiani del Littorio".
Continuing on the Provincial Road you’ll arrive to Molini di Prelà, administrative center of the various hamlets that form Prelà.