Our Blog - Cogoleto, Italy

For centuries, Cogoleto has been remembered mainly for being one of the countries that boast of being the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, and for the presence of an ancient industry, that relating to the production of lime, obtained by cooking limestone, extracted from the hills behind and cooked in the numerous furnaces once present in the historic center, near the sea.

Our first sight was the Santa Maria Maggiore Church. The first document mentioning the church dates back to 1308, but that church was torn down in 1877 to build this church. In fact, the old church had become unsafe and insufficient to accommodate the whole population for sacred rites. There are several altars, one having been donated when the church was rebuilt from the family of Christopher Columbus.

I just mentioned Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer. Both Genoa and Cogoleto claim to be the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. The house that is supposedly where he was born was mentioned by Domenico Colombo (Christopher’s father) in his will. In his will, Domenico Colombo appointed his heirs (his wife, Maria Giusti from Lerca, and his sons Bartolomeo, Cristoforo and Giacomo) and he made bequests to St. Maria Maggiore’s Parish Church (that we just saw).

The Chiesa di San Sebastiano dates back to the mid-16th century and was erected by the inhabitants themselves following (according to local tradition) the alleged disappearance of the plague by the saint. In 1835, the municipal authority used these premises as the seat of the local hospital, due to the violent cholera disease that plagued nearby Genoa; at the end of this epidemic the chapel, used as a temporary health facility, was closed and in fact abandoned. In 1912, the building was completely demolished and, thanks to the interest of the then local parish priest and the entire citizenry, rebuilt from scratch as it appears today. The rebuilding works ended in 1915 and, despite the crashes of the First World War, a solemn ceremony on August 10 inaugurated the new church. The frescoes are the work of Professor Ettore Mazzini.

The church is just across the street from the beach, although it really isn't that nice of a beach. While there are some sandy areas, a lot of what we saw was really just small rocks.