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History and culture

A plunge into the past

A plunge into the past, among castles, noble palaces and churches: Loano boasts a historic center of great monumental interest, among the best preserved in Liguria.

Founded in Roman times, from the 13th century the city became an imperial fiefdom of the powerful Doria family of Genoa, which profoundly marked its urban and cultural development. On the initiative of the Doria family, the castle and several prestigious buildings were erected, which still bear witness to the centrality of the village in Ligurian history.

This legacy helped create a architectural and monumental heritage of value, enriched over time by works such as the modern artistic fountains.

Loano also holds a rooted spiritual tradition: its ancient churches and convents tell centuries of popular devotion, keeping alive the link between faith, local identity and historical memory.

Historic Buildings

Loano Municipality
Doria Palace

Built in 1578 as the residence of Giovanni Andrea Doria and his wife Zenobia Del Carretto, Palazzo Doria is one of Loano's most representative historic buildings. Attributed to the celebrated architect Galeazzo Alessi, combines Renaissance elegance with palace-fortress features, with its pentagonal tower with an irregular base that recalls the perimeter of ancient walls.

Headquarters of the Municipality of Loano, the complex also preserves the gardens-which now house the outdoor theater-the historic Fountain Joan and the Lodge overlooking the walls and St. Sebastian Bridge, rebuilt in 1691.

Doria Castle

The ancient Castle of the Dorias, now privately owned and visitable only externally, dominates Loano from a panoramic position on the hill behind the town center. From the first fortification, dating back to the 12th century, in the 16th-17th centuries it took on the appearance of a Renaissance palace, becoming the residence of the feudal lords Doria.

It was sold to the Fieschi family in 1505 and given back to Andrea Doria by Emperor Charles V in 1547, until it became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1736.

Loano Castle
Borgo Castello

In the northern part of the city, at the foot of the Castle, develops the medieval village: one of the oldest urban cores of Loano.

The charming corner of the Middle Ages in Borgo Castello preserves the central square, embraced by arches and terraces, from which branch off Cobbled lanes and the staircase leading to the castle.

Passorino Door

Porta Passorino, one of the four original gates of the medieval city wall, is located in a cross street that connects the historic center to the waterfront and formerly closed the west the ancient Middle Road (today Cavour Street).

Built under Jo Andrew I, it was renamed “of the Clock” after 1774, with the addition of a turret with Savoy coats of arms, clock and bell to signal dangers to the population. Still visible is a covered loggia which led from the Gateway to the South Bastion-demolished in 1883 to facilitate the road system.

Passorino Door

Churches

St. John the Baptist Church
Church of St. John the Baptist

Built between 1633 and 1638 by the Lavagna brothers, the church has a dodecagonal plan and originally ended with a spire roof, which was replaced by the current dome after the 1887 earthquake.

The use of the stone of the Finale characterizes the entrance, the balustrades of the chapels and the apse. The interior preserves a fine 18th-century altar and pulpit, along with numerous paintings by important Ligurian artists of the same century.

Mount Carmel Convent

The Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, founded in 1609 as a gift of the Doria family, is one of the most significant examples of the late Ligurian Mannerism. The construction of the large complex required major preparatory work, including the construction of a viaduct, and was completed in 1610.

Today the convent is a place of prayer and spirituality, particularly linked to devotion to the Virgin Mary and the Scapular of Mount Carmel. The religious community carries out prayer and spiritual direction activities there, while also caring for a’farm Of natural products.

Loano, glimpse of the cloister of the convent of Mount Carmel.
The N.S. SS. of the Rosary Oratory (Blue Hats Confraternity)
N.S. SS Rosary Oratory

Next to the Church of St. John the Baptist stands the Oratory of Our Lady Most Holy of the Rosary, or of the Turchine Hoods. Built in 1661 on the site of Loano's second parish church, demolished because it was unsafe, it still preserves the Lower part of the original bell tower. The interior, with a single nave and smaller in size than the previous church, is an elegant example of Ligurian baroque: rich in gilding, frescoes on the vault and precious furnishings, including the high altarpiece, attributed to Baciccio, depicting the Virgin of the Rosary with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Dominic. In the apse, decorated with gilded stucco, are two small paintings of the Virgin and St. Elizabeth, while large crucifixes and carved wooden lanterns stand out along the pews.

The fraternity every year on July 2 celebrates the Feast of the Visitation, also known as the Feast of the Sea. On this occasion Olivari's grandiose sculptural group depicting Our Lady of the Visitation is carried in procession to the sea, where it traditionally makes three solemn bows repeated twice before the waves.

Oratory of the White Disciplinants

The present building probably stands on the area of the first Christian church in Loano, predating the year 775. It became the church of the Benedictine monastery of St. John until the nuns were removed in the 13th century. In the early 1300s it again became the town parish of the fledgling borough, a place of worship but also of assembly for the brethren and the population. With the construction of the new parish of St. John the Baptist around 1450, the building remained the property of the Brotherhood of Whites.

In later centuries, during the transit of foreign troops, the building was often used as a bivouac. Its present appearance dates back to 18th-century restorations, which shaped the facade, small bell tower and sober single-nave interior. Today the oratory, home to the Confraternity of the White Disciplinants, holds impressive crucifixes, flashlights and sticks used in traditional processions.

St. G. Baptist Oratory (Brotherhood of the White Disciplinants)
Our Lady of Loreto Church
Church of Our Lady of Loreto

The church of Our Lady of Loreto is the oldest medieval building on the coast of Loano, built between 775 and 1171 under the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St. Peter in Varatella. It was a landmark for the faithful who lived along the coastline and offered lodging to wayfarers and traveling monks, as well as housing spaces used as storage of goods.

Stored inside were numerous maritime ex-votos and models of boats once hung from the vault. On the ceiling is still visible the fresco of the Virgin rescuing a ship in a storm, a reminder of the grace attributed to Our Lady in 1657 when she freed Loano from a violent epidemic.

Church of St. Augustine or Our Lady of Mercy

The St. Augustine's complex was the first major religious building constructed in Loano from the Doria family, between 1588 and 1598, incorporating a chapel and a small convent of the Minims. The work, directed by architect Giovanni Ponzello and master builder Bartolomeo Lanardo, was completed in 1604. The church, dedicated to Our Lady of Mercy but known as St. Augustine's, presents a wide and sober facade, which barely hints at the three-nave interior division; a central and two side portals framed in Verezzi stone.

Inside, the structure is punctuated by two rows of Verezzi stone columns and holds valuable works of art from the 16th century, recently restored. Next to the church stands the convent, built around a cloister, from which a tree-lined avenue once led directly to the rear entrance of Palazzo Doria.

Church of St. Augustine or N. S. of Mercy.
Rolandette Church
Rolandette Church

Probably of very ancient origins, the place was born as a simple votive pillar erected at the junction between the ancient consular road Julia Augusta (later Aurelia) and the road to Ranzi and Giustenice.

According to tradition, the following were gathered here offerings destined for the Mercedarian friars, committed to ransoming Christians enslaved by Barbary corsairs in North Africa. The present church was built in the late 18th century and inaugurated in the following century.

SS. Cosmas and Damian Church

According to an undocumented tradition, this church is said to have been attended by the people of Lovran who, before the year 1000, took refuge in the hills to escape Saracen raids, choosing hidden places far from the sea.

Rebuilt in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, it was dedicated to the Our Lady of the Olive Grove, as it stood in an area rich in olive groves, and has been restored several times over the centuries. From the church opens a wide view of the harbor and on the hills sloping down to the sea; descending to the valley we take the path leading to the “Bric dei Cinque Alberi,” an ancient Ligurian castelliere of pre-Roman times.

SS. Cosmas and Damian Church
Church of the Capuchin Fathers or St. Mary Immaculate Church
Church of the Capuchin Fathers or St. Mary Immaculate Church

The first church of the Capuchin Friars stood in the area of today's Valerga Square and was built together with the convent in the seventeenth century.

Confiscated in the mid-19th century during the suppression of religious orders by the Italian state, it was replaced by thecurrent church on Gazzi Street, built between 1870 and 1875. The high altar, pulpit and confessionals of the old church, valuable works of eighteenth-century craftsmanship.

Church of Our Lady of the Visitation

Le Sisters of the Visitation, a religious institution founded in the early decades of the 19th century by the Loano priest Fr. Patrone, came into being with the mission of overseeing the schooling and women's work of the city's girls.

In the 1960s, with the construction of Corso Europa, their former convent was demolished and replaced by the present building, which now houses a kindergarten. The attached church, of modern architecture, it is a welcoming environment and very popular with the community.

Church Monastery N.S. of the Visitation Sisters
St. Pius X Church
St. Pius X Church

As early as 1951 Don Folci had planned a new church to serve Loano's Ponente neighborhood. A project also later supported by Bishop Msgr. Piazza's pastoral guidelines, which envisioned small parishes to foster a direct relationship between the parish priest and the faithful.

Made In the 1980s, the church is the most modern in Loano and features a shape inspired by the Jewish tent, a symbol of God's people on their way to the promised land. It was later completed with the bell tower.

Fountains

Discovering the fountains of Loano: the pedestrian path called “Tour of the Fountains” starts from the splendid 16th-century Joan Fountain in the gardens of the Doria Palace.

In the first decade of the 2000s, the city was enriched by six modern artistic fountains, real sculptures that combine craftsmanship and water play, transforming the urban center into an open-air art gallery.

Fountain Joan
Fountain Joan

The beautiful Joan Fountain, built in the 16th century, today is placed in the gardens of the Palazzo Doria. Originally, in the time of the Dorias, it was located in the center of the Viale delle Fontane, the street that connected Borgo Castello to the Loggetta.

Resuming the tradition of beautifying urban spaces with fountains, in the 2000s the city promoted the “Art Fountains” project, involving well-known contemporary artists in the creation of new works.

Loano rhythmic vibrations

At the eastern entrance to Loano, along Via Aurelia, is the the fountain-sculpture Loanese rhythmic vibrations by Fulvio Filidei, a work that interprets and narrates the city through symbolic forms. The sculpture takes up the line of the mountains as a real “fingerprint” of the territory, developing in four bands: the mountainous reliefs, the cultivated hinterland, the historic center with some of its stylized elements, and finally the sea, rendered by a bronze relief that recalls the crashing of the waves.

The fountain is enhanced by a big shell evoking the sound of the sea and by a four-meter-long bronze wave on which water flows, creating an evocative effect of movement. Molded in Imperia from plaster and cast in bronze using the lost-wax technique at the Carli Foundry of Turin, the work is completed with night lighting that amplifies the vibrant evocation of the sea in continuous dialogue with the city.

Loano rhythmic vibrations
Fountain of Hours
Fountain of Hours

Sandro Lorenzini's Fountain of Hours is a striking installation consisting of twenty-four totems that tell, through symbols, the history and identity of Loano. Every hour a gush of water gushes from a totem pole, until the climaxes of noon and midnight, when all the columns gush together.

The twelve columns, made of different modules of stone and colored ceramic cones and spheres, create a lively and harmonious whole. On each one towers a golden symbol - the sun, the moon, a star, a fish, a flame, a flower and others - to represent small fragments of time turned into treasure.

The measurements, the sky

The measurements, the sky by Walter Valentini is a great bronze sculpture about two and a half meters in diameter. The disk is engraved with constellations and planetary orbits, crossed by a shining gnomon that reflects the sun's rays like a universal sundial.

At the base, eight small gushes of oxygenated water, white and bright, give the impression that the work emerges from the sea in the background, evoking with poetic force the image of Botticelli's Venus rising from the waters.

The measurements, the sky
On top of the world
On top of the world

On top of the world by Ugo Nespolo is a lacquered bronze sculpture depicting a big sphere, from which jets of water flow, surmounted by a child.

The sphere is at the same time planet, globe and ball: colorful, lively, joyful as a toy. On the top the figure of the little brat, with Dickensian and Chaplinesque traits, looks at the sea horizon as if ready to dive into new, unpredictable adventures.

The Neptune

Bruno Chersicla's Neptune, imposing Aurisina stone sculpture three meters tall, wields a gilded brass trident and depicts the mythological god of the sea, ready to welcome sailors who land in port.

The work consists of three seven-centimeter-thick marble silhouettes joined by brass studs. The figure emerges from the waves: the water becomes a scenic waterfall that blends myth and marine nature.

The “Neptune”
“Conversation at the Source”
Conversation at the source

This work by Bruno Chersicla, about two meters high and made of Aurisina stone-the same karst stone that constituted much of Roman statuary-was conceived as invitation to stop and meet.

Designed to welcome tourists and passersby, it invites them to sit on the edge of the pool and to socialize, transforming urban space into a place of conviviality.

Not to be missed

Sea Museum
Sea and Maritime Museum

Sea and Maritime Museum

Caves of Toirano
Varatella Valley Ethnographic Museum and Toirano Caves

Varatella Valley Ethnographic Museum and Toirano Caves