Discover Concattedrale di San Pietro, Noli

The concattedrale di San Pietro is a Catholic place of worship at Noli, in piazza della Cattedrale, in the province of Savona. It is the seat of the parish of the same name, in the vicariate of Finale Ligure of the diocese of Savona-Noli.

Locally it has an older and better name. It is also known as the chiesa di San Pietro dei Pescatori, from the tithes on the proceeds of fishing on feast days, levied in the thirteenth century to build the first religious structure on the site.

It became the cathedral in 1572. Only with the transfer of the title from the church of San Paragorio did the ancient appellation change into today's dedication to the apostle Peter. To that period belong the adjoining bell tower, the perimeter walls of the church and the internal pillars.

The building was then transformed. Work continued from the second half of the sixteenth century; Noli's own record describes the church as erected in the thirteenth century and subsequently remodelled in the seventeenth.

Read this building by date rather than by style, because the dates are what survive. The fabric is thirteenth-century in origin; the campanile, the perimeter walls and the internal pillars are of 1572; the transformation runs from the second half of the sixteenth century; the high altar is 1679.

The bell tower is adjoining rather than integral. The record describes it as attiguo — built against the church at the time of the promotion.

Replacing the pillars is replacing the church. When the internal pillars and the perimeter walls both date from 1572, what is left of the thirteenth century is the site, the dedication and the money that paid for it.

Its advantage over San Paragorio was geometric. The record justifies the transfer of the title by calling this church the vicina e più centrale — the nearer and more central. Inside the walls beat Romanesque.

The funding mechanism is the most unusual thing about its construction. A tithe on the proceeds of fishing on feast days is a tax on a specific catch on specific days, levied in the thirteenth century and directed at one building. It is why the church carried the fishermen's name for three hundred years.

The 1572 campaign rebuilt the structure, not the decoration. Perimeter walls, internal pillars and an adjoining bell tower are the load-bearing and defining elements; a promotion to cathedral meant rebuilding the church, not redressing it.

The later sixteenth and the seventeenth century worked on the inside. The transformation from the second half of the Cinquecento, and then the altar of 1679, are the furnishing phases.

The silver and the cloth are the portable half. A processional cross in silver of 1417 and a fifteenth-century pallio are objects made to be carried and shown, which is a different kind of commission from an altar.

Why is it called San Pietro dei Pescatori?

Because the fishermen paid for it. The name comes from the tithes on the proceeds of fishing on feast days, collected in the thirteenth century to build the first structure here. The dedication to the apostle only replaced it in 1572.

When did it become the cathedral?

1572, when the title was transferred from San Paragorio, which stood outside the walls. This church was the nearer and more central one.

Why "concattedrale" and not "cattedrale"?

Because Noli's diocese no longer stands alone. The church is the co-cathedral of the diocese of Savona-Noli, and its parish belongs to the vicariate of Finale Ligure.

How much of the thirteenth-century church is left?

Less than the date suggests. The bell tower, the perimeter walls and the internal pillars all date from the 1572 promotion, and the building was transformed again from the later sixteenth century.

What is inside?

A processional cross in silver of 1417, the fifteenth-century Pallio di Sant'Eugenio, a high altar of 1679 and a sixteenth-century bishop's cathedra.

Who is Sant'Eugenio?

The patron of Noli — a bishop from Africa, buried on the islet of Bergeggi in 505 and translated to Noli in 1192, the year the republic was constituted. His feast is the second Sunday in July.

Can I go in?

No opening hour or Mass time is published by anyone. It is a working parish church; a Sunday morning is the best chance.