In 1152 Genoa acquired mons Illicis, the promontory on which the first nucleus of houses in Lerici was built. After its victory in the battle of the Isle of Giglio, Pisa soon however took possession of it. Actually Lerici remained Pisan for only 15 years, up to 1256, enough time however to endow it with the greater part of its most important monument. In fact the construction of the first nucleus of the large, solid Castle dates to this period.
The church of San Francesco are conserved the Madonna of Maralunga, paintings by Domenico Fiasella and Giovanni Bernardo Carbone, and the large painting byJean Miel, which arrived here in 1657. Near the parish church, the oratory of San Bernardino, no longer used for religious purposes and formerly home to a confraternity of theDisciplinati (penitents of Christ), conserves a triptych by Domenico Gare.
On Piazza Garibaldi stands the oratory of San Rocco (St. Roch), built in the first half of the 16th century.
Continuing along the promenade leading to San Terenzo, we come to the Marigola promontory, behind the Venere Azzurra bathing establishment. On this stands the elegant villa which is today the Study Centre of the Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia bank.
In San Terenzo the houses are arranged around the castle, a small 17thcentury fortification built as a support to the Lerici castle. The parish church of San Terenzo, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin but known as Nostra Signora dell’Arena (Our Lady of the Sand), was built in 1619. Inside it, the venerated image of the Madonna of the Sand, a 1483 panel painting by Gottardo from Piacenza.
Tellaro, perched on a cliff on the east coast of the Gulf, is a small fishing village, reviewed as one of the most beautiful in Italy. A festival of particular interest is the Underwater Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve. Every year the statue of the baby emerges from the water carried by a group of divers and deposited in a manger, in a setting of over 8,000 candles and celebrated by fireworks over the sea.