Perti

Perti, history, beauty and culture surrounded by greenery

The area of Perti, along the mountain ridge separating the Pora and Aquila valleys, behind Finalborgo, constitutes one of Finalborgo's most impressive environments in terms of landscape and history.

The high walls of Pietra di Finale in the surrounding valleys, a true paradise for free climbers from all over the world, form the backdrop to an enchanting natural scenery.

Perti has preserved traces of a centuries-old, uninterrupted human presence since the Palaeolithic period. Neolithic men frequented the Cave of the Pollera in Montesordo and the numerous caves in the area, but also lived in open-air villages at the bottom of the valley, while an Iron Age castle, known as "the village of the Souls", has been found on the Rocca di Perti.

Numerous archaeological finds have revealed ancient contacts with the Mediterranean world and the development of the settlement in Roman times, with a necropolis extending on the western slope of the Castel Gavone hill.

The castle of Sant'Antonino, erected between the 6th and 7th centuries A.D., was one of the fulcrums of defence in Byzantine Liguria, dominating from above the valleys that allowed access to the coast.

The Romanesque churches of Sant'Eusebio and Sant'Antonino date back to the 11th century, with their striking crypts still perfectly preserved.
In the Middle Ages, the area became the centre of power of the Del Carretto marquises, based on Castel Gavone, their grandiose fortified residence.

The presence of this important noble family resulted in the second half of the 15th century in magnificent examples of Renaissance architecture linked to the Del Carretto patronage: the church of Our Lady of Loreto (or "of the five bell towers"), the tower with its splendid "diamond-pointed" ashlar in Castel Gavone, the church of San Sebastiano in the Pora valley bottom.