Unlike the other villages of the Cinque Terre, of which we know already in the eleventh century (Monterosso and Vernazza), for Riomaggiore, Manarola and Volastra it is necessary to wait for the thirteenth century to have the first written documents concerning the territory of our municipality.
With a peculiarity: the name Riomaggiore appears even later; the village on the sea is preceded by some settlements in the hills (Casinagora, Sericò, Lemmen, Casen, Montenero).
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- Parco delle Cinqueterre
- Comune di Riomaggiore
The structure of Riomaggiore has changed little over the centuries, as evidenced by the paintings of Telemaco Signorini, painter of Macchiaioli who immortalized many views and scenes of the country from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The houses follow the course of the stream, buried in its final part, with several parallel orders of houses, painted with the typical pastel colors, developed in height on three or four floors, linked to each other by alleys and steep staircases. The main street that goes down to the sea is Via Santuario, which then becomes Via Colombo, changing its name again after Piazza Vignaioli and arriving at the Marina after the short tunnel to the sea, Via San Giacomo. From Via Colombo, turn into Via di Loca, which with an ups and downs also leads to the Marina, passing by Via Gramsci. The highest part of the village is located near Via Pecunia, where there are the main monuments: the church of San Giovanni Battista, the oratory of Saints Rocco and Sebastiano and the castle of Riomaggiore.
In the main carrugio, along Via Colombo, is placed instead the oratory of Santa Maria Assunta or church of the Company, of the sixteenth century, with the beautiful triptych fifteenth tempera of the Madonna and Child, between San Giovanni and San Domenico and a wooden statue of the Madonna delle Catene, symbol of the sufferings due to the Saracen raids in the Middle Ages. The last monument to remember in Riomaggiore, located on the heights towards the Telegraph hill, is the sanctuary of Nostra Signora di Montenero, documented since 1335 and built at the point where the inhabitants hid an image of the Madonna to steal it from the Lombards.
The parish church dates back to 1340, with the beautiful neo-Gothic façade restored in 1820 after an earthquake, but retaining the rose window in white Carrara marble. The alteration affected the entire structure, with the extension of the building, remaining of the original plan the single lancet windows and the two Gothic entrances decorated with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic elements. Inside, typically characterized by the alternation of black and white, there is a triptych by master Benedetto Antelami, a canvas by Domenico Fiasella with the Preaching of John the Baptist and a wooden crucifix by Maragliano. The castle, instead, on the hill of Cerricò, was built initially by the Turcotti marquises in the thirteenth century, then completed by the Republic of Genoa in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Today it retains only the outer part, with the walls and two large circular towers. During the Napoleonic period it was adapted as a cemetery and today converted into a cultural space for events. Next to it stands the small oratory of San Rocco, with its white facade of the fifteenth century and inside the triptych depicting the Virgin with the Child and Saints. The oratory was perhaps built as a thank you for the end of the plague epidemic. In the upper part of the village there is also the town hall, with the mural by the Argentinian artist Silvio Benedetto, who also decorated the railway stations of the Cinque Terre.
