Dolcedo

Altitude: 77 m a.s.l.

Area: 19 sq km

Distance from Imperia: 9 km

Inhabitants: in 1881: 2703 - in 2017: 1450

Patron Saint Day:  September 2nd - Santa Maria Addolorata

Information: Municipality phone 0183 280004


Dolcedo, which is the main center of Val Prino, was a fief of the Marquises of Clavesana until 1228, when it was sold to Genoa; together with Torrazza and Porto Maurizio it gave life, with the status of "Terziere di San Tommaso", to a single municipality that obtained autonomy in 1613 while still remaining under Genoese rule.

Visit of the town

After the bridge, park in the open space on the left in front of the high façade with two bell towers and a marble portal of the Baroque oratory of San Lorenzo.

From there, passing between the pine and the cypress, walk along the right riverside for a visit to the area of ​​the oil mills to which the town owes its past fortune: the abundance of water in fact provided the inexhaustible motive power that made the past-centuries Dolcedo a very active proto-industrial center for the pressing of olives, an activity of which you will find frequent traces throughout the town.

Behind the railing on the right indeed you’ll see, transferred there from the rooms below, the classic millstone with archaic wooden gears, and, resting on the side of the road, the large grindstones taken from the buildings on your right, all mills fed by the hydraulic energy of the underlying torrent Prino.

Pass under the vault, turn right and cross the Bridge of the Knights of Malta built in 1292 with a single great arcade in squared stone ashlars, at the end of which is inserted on the right shoulder the plaque that remembers the date of its construction, and from which -between the houses in front of you- you can see the quadrangular mass in squared stone blocks of the fifteenth-century Torre Mameli with its protruding stone shelves; the tower has been adapted to become a dwelling.

After crossing the bridge, take a few steps to the right until you reach the loggia, from which you can see, on the opposite bank of the stream, the large iron wheels of the mills to which the water gave movement; continuing you’ll find a little further on the left the window-door of an ancient shop.

Go back along the riverside passing the other window-door at the corner with the medieval bridge and then, between number 84 and number 86, the black stone architrave of 1494 carved with a Trigram in a tondo decorated with rosettes on the sides; from the iron bridge that you’ll then take, you’ll see upstream the second medieval bridge that crosses the Prino, whose right bank preserves the intricate succession of arches that support stairs, troughs and water pipes for the mills, while on the left bank open, rustic or embellished with columns, the roof terraces of the medieval village.

Crossing the bridge, follow the asphalt road passing in front of the apse of the parish church which rises directly from the bed of the stream and, keeping the left, pass under the vault where you can closely observe one of the many water pipes at the service of the mills.

Crossing the stream at the ford and climbing on the opposite bank, take the right, walking for a hundred meters, up to the other beautiful medieval bridge that brings you to an oil mill of which you can see from there the big wheels beyond the pointed arches on the stream; the hydraulic energy was supplied by the water pipe, controllable through the low inspection windows, which passes under the houses about twenty meters on the left after the bridge.

Go back, continuing on the right riverside beyond the vault that brings you back to the village and then go down on the left to the charming little square of the church of San Tommaso.

During the fourteenth century the town experienced a period of economic prosperity with all the villas equipped with workshops, stores and slaughterhouses.

In the Piazza district, business activities flourished with stalls and warehouses, selling Barbary leathers, wines, ropes and fabrics for work clothes.

Among these fabrics was particularly valuable the very resistant one named (with the term entered in the Ligurian dialects from the Arabic language) arbaxo or arbasino, made with local wool, for whose production the Gazzano company was renowned.

The ancient original church, of which a column trunk is preserved at the foot of the staircase on the left, was sold in 1103 by the bishop of Albenga to the monks of Lerins, who moved there spreading in the valley the olive tree cultivation to which the village owes so much; it underwent a first transformation in 1320, other alterations in the late fifteenth century and finally the reconstruction of 1738 which superimposed the typical characters of the Ligurian Baroque to the original Romanesque-Gothic structures.

On the beautiful black stone portal of 1492 the architrave, surmounted by a large ogival arch in black stone, is carved with a Trigram between two rosettes on each side while the jambs, flanked by pillars also in black carved stone, are worked with a braided motif; the canopy supported by two thin columns in black stone, added during the eighteenth-century remake, integrates the austere original late-medieval structures with rich decorations of delicate yellow, green and pink Baroque tones into a miraculously harmonious and balanced complex.

The interior has a Greek cross plan with a deep central apse; the decorations of the first chapels repeat the delicacy of the tones of the facade, but further on and in the apse the restoration of 1860 shoots flashing golds on heavy sea-blues, upsetting every balance.

In the second chapel on the right is the seventeenth-century "Martirio di San Pietro" by Gregorio De Ferrari from Porto Maurizio; the central chapel on the left hides behind a panel the eighteenth-century life-size wax statue of San Prospero in a Roman soldier's uniform, while in the next one there is the anonymous sixteenth-century painting "Martyrdom of St. Tomaso with the Child Jesus".

Leaving the church, cross the cobbled churchyard from which, past the door that curiously closes the entrance, you’ll get to the Municipal Loggia where, protected by a roof, a black stone portal with a Trigram carved in an oval and jambs decorated with simple geometric patterns opens on the left.

Here has been preserved the only perfectly intact Banco della Ragione of the whole western Liguria: embedded on the ground to the right are the two massive marble basins which were the official measurements for oil (on the left ) and for wine (on the right), made in 1613 in occasion of the constitution of the village into a free Commune, completed by the coeval measures of length, the iron rods "canna" and "cannella" embedded on the left.  

At the end of the loggia, two black stone trunks of column of the original church are fixed to the ground; from there climb the ramp on the right and, at the plaque carved with a Trigram between goblets of stylized flowers embedded on the opposite house, take the left, pass three almost contiguous window-doors and another one a little further on, then go down the right-hand flight of steps supported by the vault that houses the fountain with marbles and a stone lion's face, from which you can return to the car.

Cross this small square and, at the junction with the road to Imperia, turn right to reach the Baroque oratory of San Carlo shortly afterwards.

The rustic construction has a small portico on pilasters and a small bell tower to the left of the facade; the internal walls are entirely occupied by the carved wooden benches on which sat the members of the Confraternita dei Neri, who were the owners of the oratory.

Continuing by car, after one kilometer you’ll reach Costa Carnara where, after parking on the street, you can walk along Via Ruffini to the highest part of the village; next to the small Baroque church of San Jacopo Maggiore with simple stuccoes on the façade stands the fifteenth-century tower of defense from the barbarian Turks that preserves the quadrangular loopholes at the top and now only on one side the stone shelves that supported the now disappeared machicolations.

Back to the car, continue to climb reaching Castellazzo, at the end of whose inhabited area branches off to the right the steep concrete descent which in a hundred meters takes you to the church of Annunziata of the first century after the year one Thousand.

On the façade with a small portico, entirely rebuilt in Baroque style, is a stone plaque carved in a Trigram in a tondo decorated with braid and floral motifs flanked by an angel and a tree on each side; the right wall is concealed by the small convent of the Sisters of Santa Maria di Caramagna, now abandoned, leaning against it, while the left wall preserves the small single-light window  -original as well as the other two in the apse-  later pierced by the large square windows of the Baroque restoration.

Remarkable inside is the archaic stone stoup.

Almost opposite the small church stands the narrow cemented ramp which in less than a kilometer leads to the Romanesque church of Sant'Antonio Abate, surrounded by olive trees.

Back to the Provincial Road continue to climb; as soon as you pass the intersection to Case Boeri you can stop for a moment on the short straight stretch of road to go and closely observe the medieval well on the left fifty meters from the road in the grassy area planted with olive trees.

The archaic structure widens towards the bottom; incorporated in the low wall on the right is the channel that carried the water to the nearby large trough now in decay.

Continuing by car you’ll arrive to Bellissimi where the small church of Santa Maria della Misericordia with a fountain in the small terrace stands on the roadside; in front of it there is the small homonymous oratory, erected in 1864 as a sign of gratitude for the danger escaped from the cholera epidemic that infected the village that summer but did not even make a victim.

From Bellissimi the road continues up to Lecchiore, a kilometer and a half beyond which stands the Sanctuary of Madonna dell'Acqua Santa faced by the chapel with the statue of the Virgin; if you want to go on towards the wood, you can go up the stream to the pond area.

Back to Bellissimi take on the right the road that leads to Trincheri with the little church of Santa Lucia decorated with fake columns on the façade; continuing to climb you’ll reach in less than two kilometers the panoramic widening on which stands the Romanesque chapel of Santa Brigida.

The rustic rough stone building was erected in 1425 by the sharecroppers Dominicus Sasius and Dominicus Ascheri; this is remembered in the inscription engraved in a stone of the left jamb of the portal with a pointed arch and a little roof, carved in the architrave with the Maltese cross.

On the sides of the door two guardian wizards, male on the left and female on the right, watch the entrance, controlling who enters from above; the protection is completed on the opposite side of the chapel by the other guardian wizard carved in the corbel of the hanging arch in the center of the external apse.

On the right wall, next to the front edge, are embedded the terracotta-pipe eaves that ended inside, feeding a collection tank which later disappeared.

Part of the right wall and the entire apse are decorated in the attic with hanging arches with carved corbels; the roof is made of "ciappe" on a barrel vault.

On the architrave of the squared-stone right side door is carved a large and rough Agnus, and a cross is carved in a stone of its left jamb; from there you can access the interior, with a single nave and paved with very rough paving.

A stone seat runs along the walls even beyond the massive and high wall with a central passage that divides the hall from the apse, the latter enriched by the partly deteriorated fifteenth-century frescoes that represent the great figure of Santa Brigida above and the twelve apostles in the central strip.

Back to Dolcedo, at the crossroads at the beginning of the village, take the road to Imperia on the right, reaching the village of CLAVI after two and a half kilometers, where you can take the detour to Torrazza on the right.

Park after a few hundred meters and reach on foot the overlying Romanesque church of San Giorgio, one of the oldest of west Liguria: the original church was in fact consecrated on 19 May 1001.

In the following centuries the building, which preserves the original trussed roof, was enlarged with the addition of the left nave, built with quadrangular pillars that support round arches; the original entrance portal, on the façade that preserves the small upper oculus, was walled up and replaced by the current one open on the right side next to the bell tower.

Also original is the squared-stone apse, decorated with small arches with half pilasters surmounted by double notches in the attic; it has three splayed single-lancet windows, and other similar ones open in the two walls.

The bell tower with a sundial is original in the lower part, with a slit that demonstrates its military use; inside the church no important works are preserved.

Back to the car continue to climb, reaching Torrazza after one kilometer where you can park at the beginning of the village in the little square with a stone-basin fountain.

Climbing on foot along the cemented ramp on the left, pass next to the niche in whose vault is embedded a large stone with a quadrangular hole, drainage of the waters of the overlying mill which is no longer used today.

Go under the vault and immediately afterwards take the right passing the aedicule with the Virgin with a heart pierced by seven swords and the words "Atendite videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus" (Stop and see if there is a pain similar to mine) and , going up the flight of steps on the left, pass under the vault with slits on the right now enlarged to become windows; this was a gateway to the village, protected on the right at the end of the vault by the overhanging tower, which was later remodeled into a dwelling, which preserves the shelves of the lost machicolations at the top.

Thus you’ll get to the little square where the oratory of San Giovanni stands, decorated with a sundial and a deteriorated fresco of the municipal coat of arms, from which climbing up the concrete stairway you’ll reach above the small churchyard of San Gottardo with a sundial on the bell tower and inside frescoes attributed to Carrega.

From there take the right under the vaults of Via Prevosto, passing on the left a portal with a marble coat of arms reproducing a dog surmounted by two stars, and having reached almost the end of the street turn left on Via Don Andrea and then continue under the vaults to go and see, at the end of the vault on the right above the tiled roof at number 4, the oval marble plaque carved with the Virgin and Child.

Now go up to the left under the vaults of Via Pistone and after about twenty meters take the vault to the right, coming out of the walls; past the restored house with a modern sundial and terracotta columns, pass under the vault that holds the apse of the church of which you’ll follow the left side.

There opens the portal of 1547 with an architrave carved in a Trigram between rosettes, after which you can take the right along Via Comune.

At the widening at the end of it, take on the right the short mule track that goes up to the tower, preceded by the small ruined Baroque oratory of which you can take a look at the cross section of the seventeenth-century internal covering in plastered strips of wood.

The circular tower in front of you, with quadrangular loopholes and the shelves of the disappeared machicolations, is a fifteenth-century reconstruction of the older one that gave the town its name.

From the gap opened at the bottom you can see the interior of the ground floor with the stairwell on the right leading to the upper floor; bypassing the tower, climb the external stairway that leads to the original high door where a plaque reminds us of the sacking of Torrazza carried out in the sixteenth century by the "Turkish" Hasan Kellj, Dragut's right arm.

On the upper floor the defenders' access to the loopholes was permitted by the wooden mezzanine gallery that ran along the entire internal perimeter on which the holes for the support beams remained.

Going back, continue straight along the path that takes you back to the church square; at the aedicule you can take the left, go all the way till the end of the street and then turn right on Via Angelo, passing under the dark archivolts with original "picchi" (pebbles) paving  and taking at the end the concrete staircase that takes you back to the car.

Once back to the crossroads with the Provincial Road, leave the car and continue on foot, crossing the road and continuing on the dirt road to visit Clavi, the original nucleus of Torrazza.

Pass in front of the tower incorporated in the dwellings which preserves the quadrangular loopholes and the shelves of the lost machicolations and then continue to the right under the low vault going down to the old disused oil mill.

A little further on you’ll be surprised by the cute garden furnished with elements of the oil mill including several base monoliths of the press; continuing towards the river, the stairway on the left leads you to a fountain with a stone basin and a carved mask.

A little back, take the small path on the left reaching the other fountain with a semicircular stone basin and the adjoining wash house also with stone basins; from there take the concrete ramp to the left that, past the house with an arched window through which you can see the columns of the internal staircase, leads to the edge of the tiny pond.

There on the right is the thirteenth-century Romanesque bridge with two asymmetrical arches, with stone parapets carved with an ogival arch, through which you’ll reach the abandoned Baroque church of San Martino, once dependent on the Benedictine monks of Gallinara island of Albenga.

The interior of the small building, which preserves traces of frescoes on the façade, is entirely bare; along the walls runs the low stone seat, while at the center is preserved the stair that according to the archaic use divided the hall into two zones, of which the rear one was reserved to the catechumens.

 Go back up the concrete ramp that takes you back to the car; continuing along the Provincial Road, after one kilometer you’ll reach the built-up area of ​​Piani where you can take Via Principale on the right, at the end of which you can park.

Continuing on foot, upon reaching the widening climb to the right taking then the left at the end of the ascent: in front of you stands the disfigured tower with quadrangular loopholes and shelves of the lost machicolations, erected to defend the underlying gate through whose stone arch you can enter the village.

At the intersection marked by the small aedicule, after observing on the right the archaic house that preserves in front of a window the two stone shelves to hold the "ciappa" for the vase of flowers, take on the left the flight of steps under the low vault with at the beginning on the right traces of the ancient eaves in trunks of terracotta cones; at the end of the archivolt, on the upper left corner of “salita Centrale” there is a small aedicule with a marble statue of the Virgin and Child.

Take the right and, immediately after the stone lintel carved with a Trigram and the writing "Giesu mio misericordiae" at number 15, pass the protrusion of an archaic chimney covered with a "ciappa" and, after passing under the low vault, take the left; after the other vault you’ll get to a widening with on the right a nineteenth-century well with mechanical pumps and a stone basin.

Continue along the narrow street and at the intersection turn left under the vault of “salita Centrale”; at the next crossroads take the right under the vaults of Via Archi, arches that precisely prop up the stone houses of the alley at the end of which you will turn left to go back to the car.

Back to the Provincial Road, drive about three hundred meters and then park in the widening on the right next to the church of Santa Maria Assunta.

The church has very ancient origins, and already around the year 1000 it obtained the then very rare recognition as a baptismal seat for the entire valley of the Prino; mentioned in 1103, it was at first home to the Benedictine monks and then it passed under the Knights of Malta.

In the eighteenth century the building was remodeled and "turned upside down": the new entrance portal was opened in the old apse, which preserves on the outside the original hanging arches with the Maltese cross carved in the corbels and the mullioned window, while the three naves with stone columns were unified and the apse today to the left of the main entrance transformed into the baptismal chapel that still preserves the stone columns of the original structure.

Particularly interesting are the frescoes in the apses painted in the second half of the fifteenth century by Tomaso Biazaci from Busca.

In the central one (today the main entrance) are the "Scenes of the death of the Virgin" that follow the tradition of the apocryphal Gospels, very popular in the Middle Ages, and below the "Sfilata delle Sibille" of 1488; in the side one, today the baptismal chapel, the frescoes of a little later (1491) depict the Evangelists and scenes of the martyrdom of San Lorenzo, beated, scourged with iron hooks and finally burned alive on the grill.

In the central apse, each of the two corners at the top is frescoed with a large sniggering face that reproduces, in an unusual almost carnival pictorial look, the archaic sculptural tradition of pagan guardian wizards located just above the doorposts to control those who enter and frighten the evil spirits with their sneer.

The altar in front of the side entrance preserves, in addition to the seventeenth-century anonymous polyptych with stories from the life of the Virgin Mary, the venerated wooden statue of the Holy Virgin; at this altar, in 1704, San Leonardo da Porto Maurizio knelt barefoot for a month, until, miraculously healed from his lung disease, he could begin his cycle of three hundred and sixty-six preachings.

To remind us of the ecclesiastical privileges and the importance of this church is the plaque of 1636 embedded on the outside of the portal which grants "perpetual real and personal immunity to all those who will take part in the fair of this church usually held on August 15, that they be not in any way detained or foreclosed for the days 14-15-16 of the month of August ".

Pick up the car and descend to the valley bottom; after the bridge, at the large widening with a crossroads, turn right, thus reaching Via Aurelia in the Prino area of Porto Maurizio.

Immediately to the east of the built-up area of ​​San Lorenzo, branches off on the mountain side of Via Aurelia the road that in three kilometers up through the olive trees leads to Civezza.