Discover Varigotti

A concise introduction to Varigotti, its geography, history and culture.

Introduction

Varigotti is a frazione of the comune of Finale Ligure, in the province of Savona, on the Riviera delle Palme — the stretch of the Riviera di Ponente west of Genoa. It counts about 500 inhabitants, and 577 at the 2011 census for the built-up area as Istat defines it.

It was its own comune until 1869, and it is three places at once. A line of fishermen's houses at the water's edge, a promontory called Punta Crena with a watchtower on top and an olive grove on its flank, and behind the promontory a bay — the baia dei Saraceni — that was the harbour for well over a thousand years before it silted up.

There is almost no room here, and that has shaped everything. The habitable strip between the sea and the steep hills behind is no more than 200 to 300 metres wide. Modern building has filled it since the Aurelia and mass tourism arrived, but the record notes it has stayed almost entirely free of ecomostri — the Italian term for the concrete eyesore.

The patron is San Lorenzo, and there are two churches to him. The parish church on the Aurelia, Baroque with a late Gothic bell tower, and the old church of San Lorenzo on the promontory above the bay, which was the parish before it and is now a restored shell. Both have their own pages here.

Geography

A shelf 200 to 300 metres wide between the sea and steep hills, closed at its eastern end by the Punta Crena promontory and the bay behind it.

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History

A Byzantine harbour destroyed by Rotari in 643, a Benedictine monastery under Lérins from 1127, a port silted by Genoa in 1341, and an autonomous comune until 1869.

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Culture

A village whose people were called Saracens with no proof of a Saracen occupation, a patron saint with two churches, and a Donald Duck story published in Latin.

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How it was built and evolved over time

Fishermen's houses at the water's edge in what Finale Ligure's own survey calls Saracen style, a Baroque parish church of 1624-37 and a Byzantine castrum whose perimeter wall still stands.

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Climate patterns

Finale Ligure's mesomediterranean climate, with mild winters because a ridge inland blocks the cold air off the Po plain; no station figure is published.

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Frequently asked questions

Were there really Saracens here?

Nobody has shown it. The suggestion that Varigotti was for a time one of the mainland bases of the Saracens of Frassineto is recorded as a hypothesis without real confirmation. What is attested is the naming: the people were traditionally called saraceni, the bay is the baia dei Saraceni, and the hamlet of Ca' de Mori is a structure the record suggests may have been an Arab fort on the evidence of its building techniques.

Is Varigotti a town or part of one?

Part of one, and recently. It is a frazione of Finale Ligure, with about 500 inhabitants. It was an autonomous comune until 1869, when — not without resistance — it was aggregated to the borgo of Finale Pia along with Calvisio, while the Genoa-Ventimiglia railway was being built. In 1927 it became part of the newly constituted comune of Finale Ligure.

What happened to the harbour?

It silted up and the Genoese are blamed. The port lay in what is now the baia dei Saraceni; after a defeat of Finale by Genoa it was filled in by the Genoese in 1341, although the record itself calls this controversial. Before that it had served Byzantine shipping and then the Del Carretto as a base of maritime defence and attack.

What is on the promontory?

A watchtower of 1559, built after a Turkish invasion, with the remains of a convent beside it; a centuries-old olive grove on the seaward flank; the ruins of the Byzantine castrum destroyed by Rotari; and, mid-slope, the old church of San Lorenzo. A perimeter wall of the Byzantine civil settlement survives on the eastern side.

Why are there two churches of San Lorenzo?

Because the village moved. The old church stands above the harbour on the promontory and held the parish first; as the population shifted west of Punta Crena to where the village is now, a new church was built for them, affiliated to the Pieve finalese. The present parish church was built 1624-1637 by Andrea Storace, keeping the late Gothic bell tower of the earlier one.

Is there a station?

Not a working one. The coastal line was repeatedly cut by landslides from the cliffs towards Capo Noli; after the 1949 slide that killed two engine drivers, rockfall shelters were built, and in 1977 the railway was replaced by an inland line entirely in tunnel. The old station is private property and the trackbed through the village is now the public car park.

What is the turret between here and Noli?

The torretta delle Streghe, the witches' turret, built by Genoa in 1582 — Genoa had been allied with Noli since 1202 — to mark the edge of its possessions. It stands between Punta Crena and Capo Noli and still marks the boundary between the two comuni.

Verified against Wikipedia, October 2026.

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Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Wikipedia — Varigotti, like the whole coast of the Italian peninsula, long suffered the Saracen threat. The hypothesis has been raised, devoid of real confirmation, that Varigotti was for a certain time one of the mainland bases of the Saracens of Frassineto. It is possible that, abandoned by the Lombards, Varicottis may have provided occasional shelter to the Saracens, until they settled permanently and mixed with the local population. In support of this hypothesis the settlement of Ca' de Mori is cited, a structure clinging to a promontory which possibly was an Arab fort, given its building techniques. The varigottesi were traditionally called "saraceni", a name that may be rooted in the Saracen presence in the place. The port of Varigotti was the point of departure for an expedition by Guido da Ventimiglia against the Saracens of Frassineto., Varigotti is a frazione of the Italian comune of Finale Ligure in the province of Savona. It counts about 500 inhabitants; until 1869 it was an autonomous comune. It lies in the Riviera delle Palme, or Riviera di Ponente. Its patron is san Lorenzo. The figure of 577 inhabitants refers to the built-up area of Varigotti as defined by Istat, from the 2011 census of population and housing., The locality was constituted a free autonomous comune with Napoleonic rule and the creation of the Ligurian Republic. In 1853 Varigotti counted around 700 inhabitants, devoted above all to fishing, to the cultivation of olives and citrus, and to the extraction of stone from a quarry. In 1869, while the works of construction of the Genoa-Ventimiglia railway line were in full swing, Varigotti was aggregated -- not without resistance -- to the borgo of Finale Pia, together with Calvisio, also an autonomous comune at the time. In 1927 it finally became an integral part of the newly constituted comune of Finale Ligure., In the centuries that followed, Finale Ligure clashed with the Republic of Genoa. After a defeat of Finale by Genoa, the port of Varigotti was silted up by the work of the Genoese in 1341, although this fact is controversial. In the following centuries the fate of Varigotti followed that of the Finale and its clashes with Genoa. In 1559, after an invasion by the Turks, the watchtower was built on the summit of Punta Crena. In 1582 Genoa, allied with Noli since 1202, built a turret between Punta Crena and Capo Noli to mark the boundary between the possessions; the turret, called "delle Streghe", remains today and still marks the boundary between the two comuni. In 1602 Finale passed under Spanish rule, and was ceded to Genoa in 1713., Among the civil monuments of Varigotti: the promontory of Punta Crena, characterised by a centuries-old olive grove overlooking the sea, preserves an ancient Saracen watchtower built in 1559, and beside it are the remains of a convent; the ruins of the Byzantine castrum, dating from the Byzantine era and destroyed by Rotari; and the mole, named after the film director Renato Castellani. Among the religious monuments: the parish church of San Lorenzo, of Baroque forms with a late Gothic bell tower; the church of San Lorenzo overlooking the baia dei Saraceni, of very ancient origins, which was the first parish church of Varigotti until 1586; and the oratorio di Sant'Antonio Abate in the rione of Varigotti. Varigotti is a renowned tourist destination; the greatest flow of holidaymakers is registered in the summer period., The church of San Lorenzo is a religious building on the strada statale 1 Via Aurelia in the rione of Varigotti at Finale Ligure, in the province of Savona; it is the seat of the parish community of the same name of the vicariate of Finale Ligure-Noli of the diocese of Savona-Noli. The first citations date from 1356, and of the original building only the late Gothic bell tower remains visible, although remodelled in later periods; the present bell tower belongs to the original church of 1578-1585, which then became the canonica. The present structure is of a single nave with a chapel set against the left side and surmounted by a dome. The characteristics are those of the Baroque style, the church having been the object of deep interventions during the seventeenth century: the parish church of San Lorenzo visible today was built between 1624 and 1637 by the architect Andrea Storace. The external facade has simple lines and is decorated with bicoloured horizontal bands in typical Ligurian style. Inside are conserved some works of note, such as a polyptych of San Lorenzo of 1584, a wooden tabernacle of the sixteenth century, a seventeenth-century canvas of the Madonna del Rosario, and a triptych of the Virgin with San Lorenzo and Sant'Antonio., The whole Finale coast became part first of the Aleramic march and then of the territories of Bonifacio Del Vasto. In 1127 the Cistercian monks of the Abbey of Lerins settled in the church of San Lorenzo, a pre-existing monastic cenacle probably dating from the seventh century. In 1162 the march of Savona was constituted, enfeoffed to Enrico Del Carretto, of which Varigotti was a part often contested by the nascent comune of Noli. The monks of Lerins remained until 1177, when the church probably became the parish church of Varigotti -- there being in fact no news of the church until 1356. Varigotti took on importance and prosperity again thanks to the ancient port, which became an important base of maritime defence and attack for the Del Carretto. Meanwhile the population began to move from the port area to the area west of the promontory, where the settlement stands today; here a "compagna" was formed, a free association of the men of the villages with corporate power. At the same time a new church of San Lorenzo was constituted to the west, affiliated to the Pieve finalese, the old San Lorenzo above the port being by then far from the settlement. Given this westward shift, the inhabited nuclei of Pino, Giardino, Chien, Ca dei Mori, la Seva and la Monda were formed and the settlement developed along the coastal strip., The opening of the modern via Aurelia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the explosion of mass tourism have brought the present building expansion, fortunately almost entirely free of "ecomostri", despite the extreme narrowness of the available space, no more than 200-300 metres wide between the sea and the steep surrounding hills. Until the mid-1960s free camping was still possible on the beach of the baia dei Saraceni. Between Varigotti and Capo Noli the wild nature of the coast, with the vertical walls of crumbling rock hundreds of metres high of the overlooking hill, caused continual maintenance for the stretch of railway outside the tunnels: after yet another landslide, which had fatal consequences for two engine drivers in 1949 in the Malpasso area, the rockfall shelters still visible today were built at the mouths of the two tunnels. In 1977 the new inland railway line was activated, placing it entirely in tunnel. The old station is now private property, and the route that passed through the village has been transformed into a public car park., The origins of Varigotti are dated by some to the second century A.D., and by others to the Byzantine era; in favour of the first hypothesis, fragments and tombs datable from the third to the seventh century were found in the church of San Lorenzo. After the fall of the Roman Empire the port of Varigotti, located in the present-day baia dei Saraceni, offered a safe landing for the Byzantine ships that maintained the links with the fortifications still active along the Ligurian Apennines and the Maritime Alps. The orography separated Varigotti and nearby Noli from the Po hinterland, protecting them from possible barbarian incursions. The port was defended with a Byzantine castrum placed on Punta Crena, while the civil buildings were placed near the port and on the eastern slope of the promontory, of which a perimeter wall still remains today., Varigotti is a frazione of the Italian comune of Finale Ligure in the province of Savona. It counts about 500 inhabitants; until 1869 it was an autonomous comune. It lies in the Riviera delle Palme, or Riviera di Ponente. Its patron is san Lorenzo. The figure of 577 inhabitants refers to the built-up area of Varigotti as defined by Istat, from the 2011 census of population and housing., Among the inland frazioni of Finale Ligure are Olle, Gorra, Perti, Monticello, San Bernardino, Calvisio and Verzi, and further off towards Noli the frazione of Varigotti, famous for its beach and for the characteristic fishermen's dwellings at the water's edge in Saracen style. The comune of Finale Ligure is situated on the Riviera Ligure di Ponente between the promontories of Caprazoppa, to the west, and of Capo Noli to the east., The opening of the modern via Aurelia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the explosion of mass tourism have brought the present building expansion, fortunately almost entirely free of "ecomostri", despite the extreme narrowness of the available space, no more than 200-300 metres wide between the sea and the steep surrounding hills. Until the mid-1960s free camping was still possible on the beach of the baia dei Saraceni. Between Varigotti and Capo Noli the wild nature of the coast, with the vertical walls of crumbling rock hundreds of metres high of the overlooking hill, caused continual maintenance for the stretch of railway outside the tunnels: after yet another landslide, which had fatal consequences for two engine drivers in 1949 in the Malpasso area, the rockfall shelters still visible today were built at the mouths of the two tunnels. In 1977 the new inland railway line was activated, placing it entirely in tunnel. The old station is now private property, and the route that passed through the village has been transformed into a public car park., Among the civil monuments of Varigotti: the promontory of Punta Crena, characterised by a centuries-old olive grove overlooking the sea, preserves an ancient Saracen watchtower built in 1559, and beside it are the remains of a convent; the ruins of the Byzantine castrum, dating from the Byzantine era and destroyed by Rotari; and the mole, named after the film director Renato Castellani. Among the religious monuments: the parish church of San Lorenzo, of Baroque forms with a late Gothic bell tower; the church of San Lorenzo overlooking the baia dei Saraceni, of very ancient origins, which was the first parish church of Varigotti until 1586; and the oratorio di Sant'Antonio Abate in the rione of Varigotti. Varigotti is a renowned tourist destination; the greatest flow of holidaymakers is registered in the summer period. (October 2026).