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| FEZZANO
DI PORTO VENERE |
The little
village of Fezzano resembles Porto Venere in its
architecture and layout: the centre of the village consists
of narrow tall old houses, built against one another, with
little alleyways, not as well known as those of Porto Venere,
but without a doubt as enchanting.
Right in the middle is the Church of St John
The Baptist, built in 1740 with contributions from all its
inhabitants, especially its ship owners.
At the end of the 18th Century an organ was
purchased from the famous Genoese organ maker Luigi Ciurlo.
The church also houses five big canvases by the local
painter Giuseppe Tori and a wooden statue by Anton Maria
Maragliano.
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In the village one can
still find the recently restored remnants of the Villa Cattaneo, once owned by
an illustrious Genoese family, who lived in Fezzano in the middle of the 14th
Century. In this villa once lived Simonetta Cattaneo, who became the young
bride of Mario Vespucci from Florence. Her beauty not only intrigued Lawrence
the Great and inspired Poliziano, but it was above all the painter Botticelli
who was enchanted by her beauty and who in his work “Birth of Venus” dedicated
the features of the beautiful Simonetta to the Goddess.
Recent studies of the painting have come to suggest that the background is
represented by the Gulf of Venus, as the Gulf of La Spezia was once called.
Also Fezzano looks onto a sheltered inlet, where it is possible to walk along
the shore amongst lush pine trees.
Fezzano has a small private harbour with mooring facilities off floating
jetties for 240 boats.
The area was once taken up by the old shipyard which specialised first in
demolition and, at a later stage, in repairs: although the area as a whole
now has a different use, the shipyard tradition and workers’ expertise have
been maintained and, as a result, the harbour of Fezzano has a fully-equipped
shipyard which can handle all kinds of repairs. |
