Sung by Gino Paoli in “Laigueglia’s Song”, composed by Rosario Bonaccorso and inserted into the album of the same Paoli “A meeting in jazz”, the village of Laigueglia is located on the edge of one of the most populous and tourist frequented areas of Riviera Ligure di Ponente, the stretch of coast of the two touristic towns of Albenga and Alassio.
Laigueglia, further to the south, is a center of roman origins, for part of its history within the orbit of the powerful city of Genoa, a destination, in the XIV century, for the Catalans, probably coral fishermen and hundreds of families from the near Andora, fleeing from the plague and malaria. Assaulted in the middle of the XVI century by Barbarossa and a few years later sacked by the Barbaresco pirate Dragut, lived then the years of loyalty to the Republic of Genoa in order to reach the municipal autonomy in 1794. Then, at the end of the Nineteenth Century, depopulated because of the epochal decline of maritime activities, with emigration over the ocean, in South America, for live then, at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the opening of the first bathing establishment, the beginning of a great new era for the village.
That country which is today one of the most picturesque and popular hamlets in Liguria, a mixture of beauty and poetry, the one that only the most evocative and fascinating villages can give. Alleyways and squares, the pastel shades of the facades, the scents surrounding the center, and the picturesque views of the sea make of Laigueglia, placed like an amphitheater in front of the waters, an appreciated center of peace and serenity. Among its alleywasy you can still breathe the ancient soul that Liguria once it was.
It is the baroque parish church of San Matteo, flanked by two bell towers surmounted by domes of colored majolica, the monument that best reflects the history of the country, erected in the heart of the XVIII century, when the reef fishing was at its peak. With a Latin cross plan proposes valuable works, including the assumption by the seventeenth-century painter Bernardo Strozzi, a marble holy water stoup of 1561, the precious statuette in polychrome wood of the “Ecce Homo” by the famous Ligurian sculptor Antonio Maragliano (1664-1739) and a work by the local painter Benedetto Musso. To see, between religious monuments, the oratory of Santa Maria Maddalena, belonged to the Congregation of the disciplined from the altar in marble, the large altarpiece dedicated to the Penitent Magdalene and a valuable crucifix from the seventeenth century. Among the architectural emergencies military, of the three towers of the sixteenth century which were erected in defense of the frequent pirate raids, remains only one called the “Eastern bastion”.
The beauty and the charm of the place joins with a rich and varied cuisine.
Photo giallozafferano.it
The classic dishes of the sea as the fried fish, accompanied by a fresh local white wine to taste in one of its restaurants and other specialties including the bianchetti pancakes and fish soup, joins a rich variety of sweets between which the seaman’s bread, sweet pancakes with a base of flour and raisins, prepared for the feast of the patron saint San Matteo, and typical Kisses of Laigueglia, authentic local delight, prepared with almonds, hazelnuts and chocolate cream from the dough not particularly sweet and soft, delicious shackle that can be tasted at various times of the day during a break from the sea, a stop at one of the carugi of the historic center or even while you stroll through the shops to make purchases.