Overview
Before and after Albenga, the railway between Genoa and France runs alongside the coast. Not so here. In Albenga, the tracks pass between the historic centre and the sea across a broad, essentially flat strip, because the Centa river has accumulated its deposits over the centuries, forming new land that is now built up almost to the beaches. In short, the course of the river separated the mediaeval Albenga from the Ligurian Sea, gradually diminishing the city's original port and commercial importance.
The history of Albenga is well illustrated by the famous towers, including those of the Municipality and the Cathedral. In Piazza Europa, the Multimedia Centre tells of an island, that of Gallinara, which emerges from the sea right in front of Albenga and is rightly protected as a Nature Reserve off the stretch of coast towards Alassio. The centre is set up in a former 16th-century fort, where panels and interactive floors introduce the extraordinary environmental heritage of Gallinara.
