San Remo (Sanrœmu in Ligurian) is an Italian town of 54 637 inhabitants in the province of Imperia, in Liguria. It is the first municipality in the province by population. Located along the Riviera dei Fiori, it is a well-known tourist resort, renowned for the cultivation of flowers, hence the nickname of City of Flowers. It also hosts the arrival of the Milan-Sanremo cycling race (one of the classic monuments of cycling), the Italian Song Festival, the Tenco Award and the motor racing rally; it is also home to one of the three casinos in Italy.
The city offers various examples of heterogeneous architecture, ranging from Baroque to Art Nouveau, from Romanesque to Neoclassical.
Insigne Collegiate Basilica Co-Cathedral of San Siro built in the
12th century on the remains of an early Christian church, probably by
the Comacini Masters. Currently of Romanesque-Gothic architecture, with
three naves, it was remodeled and enlarged in the 17th century, when the
bell tower, with 12 bells, was also rebuilt following an English naval
bombardment.
Sanctuary of the Madonna della Costa, called by the
citizens and better known to tourists as Madonna della Costa, has always
been a point of reference for sailors as it was built on top of the
Pigna hill, seat of the primitive nucleus of the city. The church was
built in 1361 to celebrate the liberation of Sanremo from the hegemony
of the Genoese, the Dorias. Currently the church has seventeenth-century
architecture, and preserves, among numerous baroque decorations and
seventeenth-eighteenth-century frescoes, four eighteenth-century wooden
statues and a fourteenth-century Madonna with Child: and this is
precisely the Madonna della Costa from which the church takes its name.
Church of Christ the Saviour, built at the end of the 19th century by
the Russian nobility based on a project by the architect Aleksej Scusev
and then taken over by Pietro Agosti. The building is still in use today
and is one of the symbols of the city. It is located a few meters from
the Casino, towards the west.
Hermitage of San Michele is an ancient
place of worship located halfway along the road that leads from the golf
course to the hamlet of San Romolo. Starting from the remains of an
ancient medieval monastery, it was renovated by Michele Toffetti in the
second half of the 19th century, and became his last residence during
the exile-hermitage that he was forced to lead following the
independence revolutionary uprisings. Today, the exterior can be
visited, while the interior is open a few times a year, on the occasion
of religious celebrations or weddings.
Palazzo Bellevue - Built between 1893 and 1894 on a project by Pietro
Agosti, its destination was for almost 70 years that of a luxury hotel
for a select clientele: in fact, inside there were large representative
rooms, elegant suites, large rooms , a renowned restaurant, and spaces
dedicated to the servants of the gentlemen who went to visit the city,
mostly European financiers and nobles. At the time, it concealed a
second structure of a therapeutic nature, a kurhaus (a sort of ante
litteram spa), which later became the Hotel Excelsior. The facade has
rich decorative motifs of various kinds, with a vaguely oriental
flavour. Since 1963, when the hotel complex was purchased by the
Municipality, it has been the municipal seat.
Palazzo Borea d'Olmo -
Built at different times, starting from a house of the late Middle Ages,
the palace, in the very central via Matteotti a few meters from the
Ariston theater, took on its current appearance between the 17th and
18th centuries, and represents one of the most important Baroque
buildings in western Liguria. The sixteenth-century portal is surmounted
by a statue of the Madonna del Montorsoli, a pupil of Michelangelo, as
well as seventeenth-century frescoes by Giovanni Battista Merano. Seat
of the city's Civic Museum on the second noble floor, it is still
entirely in private hands and is the residence of a branch of the Borea
d'Olmo family.
Villa Zirio - Built in 1868 on commission by the
Sanremo lawyer Giovanni Battista Zirio.
Villa Caravadossi d'Aspremont
- Built according to the project of the Nice architect Giulio Franco
Gilli.
Villa Nobel - In 1870 the pharmacist from Rivoli Pietro
Vaccheri had an elegant building built on the east coast of the city
which "because of the speed and elegance of its forms it pleases the
most scrupulous in wanting to comply with the rules of the art". In
Moorish style, this was the last residence of Alfred Nobel, who he
bought in 1892, restructured (according to a project by Pio Soli)
raising it by one floor, renamed it "Villa Mio Nido" and where he moved
mainly for health reasons. It has belonged to the community since 1969,
and since then it has been the venue for meetings, events or cultural
events. Since 2002 the villa, completely restored in its original form,
has been open to the public and can be visited, and houses a museum on
nineteenth-century discoveries and inventions.
Villa Luca in
Coldirodi, seat of the Rambaldi Art Gallery
Villa Ormond - Mainly
known for its large park, full of exotic plants, the villa belonged to a
Swiss family, as the poet Pastonchi recounts: "The invisible Madame
Ormond had bought the solitary Rambaldi house, a white rectangle inside
a large olive grove: he had demolished it to completely redo it, with
arcades and loggias, uprooting the olive trees to arrange an English
garden". Michel Louis Ormond (1828-1901) bought the old Villa Rambaldi
in 1875 at the behest of his French wife Marie Marguerite Renet
(1847-1925), and when the 1887 earthquake seriously damaged the original
structure, he entrusted the reconstruction to the Swiss architect Emile
Réverdin (completed 1889). In 1928, after the death of Marie Marguerite,
the villa was purchased jointly with the park by the municipality of
Sanremo, which over the years has made it the venue for award ceremonies
and various events: from 1936 to 1977 international floral exhibitions.
It currently houses the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in
one wing. The park was divided into two parts by the Via Aurelia: to the
north is the villa, the "Winter Garden", and a Japanese-style sector,
which recalls the twinning between Sanremo and the city of Atami; on the
south side, in addition to the fountain with stone cherubs designed by
Pietro Agosti, there are statues erected in memory of two of the many
illustrious guests of Sanremo, the Mexican "poet, historian, politician,
orador" Ignacio Manuel Altamirano (who died in Sanremo in 1893) and
Nicholas I, ruler of Montenegro. Villa Ormond is today the headquarters
of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law.
Villa King - In
the San Martino district (near Villa Nobel) this Art Nouveau building,
built by Pietro Agosti in 1909 and originally called Villa Spinola, was
donated by the German baron Thiem to his daughter on the occasion of her
marriage to Count Spinola of Genoa. Used as a hotel since the 1930s, it
was recently partially destroyed by a fire and is currently under
renovation. The entrance gate to the property is entirely in wrought
iron, assembled with studs hammered one by one. The gate was made by a
local blacksmith, "Baccicin" Giordano, whose family, from the mid-19th
century until the 1950s, created wrought iron works in their workshop in
via Canessa for large villas and gardens on the Riviera and the French
Riviera .
Devachan Castle - Construction of the early twentieth
century, in Art Nouveau style, located among the hills close to Corso
degli Inglesi, built according to the 1905 project by Pietro Agosti,
completed in 1909. Between 19 April and 24 April 1920, it housed the
Sanremo Conference (also known as the Conference of the Straits), a
meeting during which territorial assignment issues between the allies
concerning the former Ottoman Empire were resolved, at the end of the
great war.
Villa Mi Sol, built between 1878 and 1880 according to the
project of the architect Pio Soli.
Villa Fiorentina, built in 1886 on
a project by the architect Pio Soli commissioned by the Asquasciati
family.
Villa Bel Respiro, built in 1893 to a project by the
architect Pio Soli.
Villa Stefania, built in 1896 on a project by the
architect Pio Soli.
Villa del Sole, built in 1898 to a design by the
architect Pio Soli.
Villa Angerer, built in 1880 and located in via
Fratelli Asquasciati opposite the side entrance to the Casino.
Torre della Ciapela - The Ciapela tower is an ancient defensive
bulwark located on the edge of the historic center of Sanremo. It was
built by the Genoese around 1550 for defensive purposes and to contrast
the Saracen raids. To obtain the construction of this structure, the
local population had to swear allegiance to the Republic of Genoa.
Torre dell'Arma - dated 1563, is a defensive building located in the
historic territory of the village of Taggia.
Forte di Santa Tecla -
built in 1576 by order of the Republic of Genoa, it has a triangular
plan and had 16 pieces of artillery. From 1864 to 1997 it was used as a
judicial prison, before being abandoned. After a long period of neglect,
the interiors have been restored, and today it can be used as a
multipurpose room
At the ends of the city (the "tre ponti" area to
the east and the "capo nero" area to the west) there are two bunkers
dating back to the Second World War. Along the coast stretches of
anti-landing wall and anti-aircraft machine gun emplacements are also
recognizable.
In the district of San Martino there is the barracks of
the former 157th Infantry Regiment "Leoni di Liguria", now used as a
military rest.
Via Matteotti
Via Giacomo Matteotti, commonly known as "the tub",
is the main artery of Sanremo.
Laid out in the mid-nineteenth
century as Strada Nuova, it was then dedicated to King Vittorio Emanuele
II and for a short period from 1943 to 1945 to Ettore Muti, the
secretary of the National Fascist Party, killed in Fregene in 1943.
Finally, after the war, it was dedicated to Giacomo Matteotti, the
deputy of the Unitarian Socialist Party killed in Rome in 1924 by the
fascists.
It was nicknamed via Vittorio by the sanremaschi and,
even today, it is not difficult to meet some elderly people who still
call it that.
Via Matteotti is the concentration of every
commercial aspect of the city, with shops and restaurants. There are
also numerous bars and cafes with homemade ice creams.
This long
pedestrianized street houses two cinemas, including the famous Ariston
Theater (where the Italian Song Festival and the Tenco Prize are held
every year), the historic Palazzo Borea d'Olmo, where the local civic
museum is housed, and in via Carli, one of its small crossroads, the
Corradi Library in Sanremo, a meeting place for students and
intellectuals. Furthermore, the Municipal Casino is also located in Via
Matteotti, even if administratively it belongs to Corso degli Inglesi,
since it is located a few meters after the intersection between the two
streets. During the 2013 Sanremo Festival, a statue of Mike Bongiorno
was inaugurated at the crossroads between Via Matteotti and Via
Escoffier, in honor of the festivals presented by him (surpassed only by
Pippo Baudo for the number of festivals presented).
Since July
2010, the first section, between the Ariston Theater and via Feraldi,
has been a pedestrian area. Since February 2011, the second stretch of
Via Matteotti, up to the Casino, has also become a pedestrian area and
work is underway to adjust the grounds and bring it into line with that
of the first stretch.
The first section is paved in stone, with a
continuous series of brass drainage grates in the centre, interspersed
with brass panels engraved with the names of the artists (and related
songs) who have won the Sanremo Festival until 2021.
Villa Matutia, also known as the Villa Romana della Foce. The first
excavation campaign began in 1925 on the initiative of the area
inspector Pietro Barocelli, in an area in which the expansion of the
municipal cemetery was planned. A few years earlier the engineer Pietro
Agosti had already hypothesized the development area of the ruins which
in some cases emerged from the ground. The area was so extensive that
even below sea level remains of Roman masonry could be perceived.
Already in February 1926 the area was restricted, but it was not
possible to involve the municipal administration in the acquisition of
the areas in order to continue the excavations. Only in 1936 did the
archaeologist Nino Lamboglia manage to obtain the necessary funds from
the Municipality of Sanremo to be able to continue the work, bringing to
light new rooms in the southern area, presumably pertaining to a small
private bathroom. Lamboglia identified the area as "a modest villa
rustica". Only in 1960, following the expropriation of the area that
held the best preserved ruins and the demolition of an
eighteenth-century cottage, was it possible to continue the excavation
campaigns. Once again the excavations were carried out from Lamboglia
and led to dating the area to the 2nd century AD. The villa is made up
of various rooms even if in most cases only the foundations remain and
nothing regarding the flooring. The set of the most important rooms
constituted the baths, while the other rooms constituted service areas,
perhaps deposits and certainly a latrine.
Roman villa of Bussana, in
the locality of Bussana
Sanremo Festival (Sanremo Italian Song Festival), Ariston Theater
(Corso Matteotti, 212). In February.
Sanremo in Fiore. Parade of
floral floats made by the municipalities of the Riviera dei Fiori. The
event takes place with a ring route in the central streets of the city
of flowers.
Historic Rally of Sanremo (Cup of Flowers).
White
Night. September. It consists in the organization of various cultural or
entertainment initiatives throughout the night.
Rally of San Remo.
September. Trial valid for the International Rally Challenge.
By plane
It is possible to reach Sanremo by landing at the nearest
airports, and then arriving in the city by car or train. Airports near
Sanremo are:
Nice airport, which is only 50 km from Sanremo
Genoa airport, which is located 130 km from Sanremo
By car
The
European highway E80, which includes the A10 Genoa-Ventimiglia and the
A8 Menton-Aix-en-Provence, connects the city to neighboring France and
with the main Italian highways, there is the SS20 which connects Sanremo
to Piedmont.
On boat
Sanremo has a tourist port called
Portosole and a commercial port that the Sanremese call the old port
where some days cruise ships arrive. Sanremo can be reached from the
ports of:
Montecarlo
Savona
Genoa
On the train
Sanremo station is located along the international railway line, which
connects Italy to France and Spain, making travel by train very easy
too.
Modest prices
1 Manik - L'Officina del Burger, Piazza Eroi
Sanremesi 9, ☎ +39 0184 191 1348. Mon-Sat 12:00-14:30 - 19:30-23:30.
Various burgers starting from €9, large salads on the menu.
2 The
daily sandwich, Via Palazzo 91, ☎ +39 333 773 2604,
info@ilpaninoquotidiano.it. Sandwiches with numerous ingredients,
including vegetarian options, from €3.50. Small venue with some seating.
Average prices
3 Quintessence Restaurant, Corso Matteotti 5, ☎
+39 0184541612. mainly fish dishes, try the chestnut flour gnocchetti
with white pesto.
4 Taverna al 29, Piazza Cassini 5, ☎ +39 373 762
3677. closed on Sundays and from October to May also on Wednesdays. Fish
and meat dishes.
High prices
5 La Pignese, Piazza sardi 7/8, ☎
+39 0184 501929, info@lapignese.it. Ancient trattoria opened in 1919
specializing in fish-based dishes.
Average prices
Hotel Belle Epoque, Via Roma, 8, ☎ +39 0184 577110,
fax: +39 0184 662245. In a central position, the Hotel Belle Epoque
allows its guests to relive the charm of classic Sanremo, the structure
is well-kept and the environment comfortable .
Hotel Napoleon, Corso
Marconi, 56, ☎ +39 0184 662244, fax: +39 0184 662245. The Hotel Napoleon
is a modern hotel facing the beach of San Remo, surrounded by a vast and
peaceful garden.
Hotel Milano, Corso Garibaldi, 39, ☎ +39 0184
509367, fax: +39 0184 593846. The Hotel Milano in the center of Sanremo
is a charming Art Nouveau villa, a historic residence 5 minutes from the
beaches of the Riviera dei Fiori and the Ariston Theater .
Hotel
Villa Sapienza, Corso Matuzia, 21, ☎ +39 0184 6957516, fax: +39 0184
667675. Elegant residence overlooking the shining sea of Sanremo.
Residence dei due Porti, Corso Trento Trieste, 21, ☎ +39 0184 506506,
fax: +39 0184 530700. Seafront holiday home in the center of Sanremo,
studios, two-room and three-room apartments. Reception office from
morning to evening, night porter. Parking and solarium. Daily cleaning
included.
High prices
Hotel Nyala, Via Solaro, 134, ☎ +39 0184
667668, fax: +39 0184 666059. Double: 60/160€ with breakfast included.
4-star hotel located in a quiet and panoramic area that has traditional
rooms and junior suites, restaurant, garden, swimming pool, children's
playground, meeting rooms, free parking. The rooms have balconies
overlooking the garden, air conditioning, satellite TV, minibar, safe.
The junior suites have a terrace with a splendid sea view, Sky pay-TV, a
hydromassage tub.
The city was founded close to two mountain ridges,
which originate in Monte Bignone (about 1300 m) and proceed to the
sea: to the east, towards the promontory of Cape Verde (surmounted
by the Capo dell'Arma della Marina lighthouse) , and west to Capo
Nero.
The original residential area, the Pigna, lies on the
walls of a hill-promontory dominated by the sanctuary of the Madonna
della Costa, and lapped by the San Francesco and San Romolo streams.
To the east, the San Martino stream and to the west the Foce stream
give their name to the relative east and west areas of the city.
The first strip of the hinterland, close to the city, is full of
greenhouses and flower crops, recalling the important role of
floriculture in the city economy. Some olive groves and the remains
of strips (terraced crops), now almost completely abandoned, dot the
surrounding countryside and steep hills.
The hamlets of the
wooded hinterland are just a few kilometers from the city center, so
much so that during the summer it is customary for the people of
Sanremo to take "trips out of town" among the chestnut woods in the
hamlet of San Romolo, built around a meadow that for years has been
a destination for children's games, or among the pastures of the
airy peak of Monte Bignone, from which it is possible to enjoy the
view from Saint-Tropez to Albenga, and on clear days, up to Corsica.
The wooded belt of the hinterland was recently included in the
instituting San Romolo-Monte Bignone Natural Park: an area of
about 700 hectares, rich in fauna and vegetation, in which paths
and mule tracks are closely intertwined.
The two promontories
east and west of Sanremo host the hamlets of Poggio and Coldirodi
respectively: the first, known for representing the last uphill
stretch of the Milan-Sanremo, is the second location of the Rambaldi
Art Gallery.
Administratively, the city extends east beyond
Cape Verde. Here is the hamlet of Bussana, the most populous in the
municipality, which was built from scratch after the earthquake of
1887 destroyed the original town, located on the hills behind and
today known as Bussana Vecchia. This dilapidated village remained
abandoned until the early sixties, when artists from all over the
world decided to repopulate it, restoring the stone buildings to
their original structure.
The protection offered
to Sanremo by the mountainous ridge that rises immediately behind it
means that the climate of the city is by far the mildest among those
found in Liguria, in northern Italy and in most of the central one
(similar climatological conditions in the peninsula Italian are
found only in latitudes lower than that of the city of Rome).
In the winter months, the average daily temperatures are around
+ 10 / + 11 ° C, in fact, despite an absolute historical minimum of
-5.2 ° C (dating back to 10 February 1986, the day after the most
conspicuous snowfall of the 20th century ) in Sanremo only
exceptionally temperatures of 0 ° C are recorded (average frequency
of frosts around 0.8 days / year) and overall night lows below +5 °
C are also rare (in January and February the average minimum values
are attest to around +7 ° C, the average maximums are almost +13 °
C); snowfalls are also very rare; a snowfall occurred on December
28, 2005 with an accumulation of 3-5 cm up to the seashore, another
on February 11, 2010, when a 5 cm thick mantle whitened the central
streets of the city and the coastal areas, while the last episode
dates back to the evening of 28 February 2018, with small
accumulations of approximately 1–2 cm. A more consistent snow
episode is dated 9 February 1986, when about 18/20 cm of snow fell
on the coastal areas.
The Sanremo summers are windy,
moderately hot and the months of July and August record average
daily values close to +24 ° C, with average minimums of about +20
° C and maximums around + 28 ° in fact, despite an absolute maximum
of +36, 6 ° C (dating back to August 4, 1981), daytime values
higher than + 33 / + 34 ° C are very rare even during the most
intense heat waves from Tunisia, thanks to the breezes that tend to
mitigate the heat and due to the effects of badgers of average
relative humidity (which in the extreme west of Imperia are more
contained than in the rest of Liguria) in Sanremo the sultry days
are much less frequent than in cities such as Savona, Genoa or La
Spezia, which also have very similar summer temperatures . The
absolute record for the city center was recorded at the Astronomical
and Earth Physics Observatory Europa'71 on 5 August 2003 and is
equal to +38.4 ° C.
http://www.mariovignali.it/astro/tempo/2003/ago03.html
In general, temperatures in Sanremo are a little higher than in the
neighboring coastal municipalities also due to a modest heat island
effect.
Two spellings of the toponym, Sanremo and
San Remo, have been used in the past; for a long time they coexisted
peacefully, although creating some problems, although the
administration tended to use the united version. The official
etymology, consequently, was controversial and for a long time it
was the subject of disquisitions that resulted in a real question,
in which both distinguished scholars such as Girolamo Rossi and
well-deserving citizens such as Carlo Alberto were interested. In
ancient times, the city was known as Civitas Matuciana, but with the
advent of the Middle Ages, following the death of San Romolo (a
bishop of Genoa who lived around the 9th century, who spent most of
his life in the woods of Sanremo, died as a hermit on the slopes of
nearby Monte Bignone), the citizens wanted to honor him by
dedicating the name of the city to him, which thus took the name of
Civitas Sancti Romuli. As regards the second transformation, that is
from “San Romolo” to “Sanremo”, two theses were then elaborated. The
first states that the passage from "Romulus" to "Remus" occurred
following the death of San Romolo: since the tombs of the saints
were greatly visited in the Middle Ages, the "Sanctum Heremum"
following changes in the language, over time, would be became "Santo
Eremo" and then "San Remo". This interpretation, in the past very
accepted, presents, however, a flaw, since no official document
speaks of "Holy Hermitage", and it would not even explain why the
city has remained the name of "Holy Hermitage", while the real
hermitage and precisely that of "San Romolo".
The second
thesis, now universally accepted, argues that the transformation of
the name from "Romolo" to "Remo" took place due to the dialectal
phonetics, that is to say the typical cadence of the Ligurian west
of rendering the "o Latin" in "ö". Consequently, the dialectal
diction of "Romolo", or "Romu", would have been pronounced as "Rœmu"
and then translated, over time, into "Remu", or "Remo". This thesis
is also supported by historical documents: in the archives, in fact,
it is possible to find documents, in a period of time between the
'300 and' 600, in which the names Civitas Sancti Romuli and Civitas
Sancti Remuli appear in equal frequency, and indeed in some they are
both found in the same act; for example in a deed of 1359 appears
Civitas Sancti Romuli and shortly after the adjective Remoretus,
while in an act of the Republic of Genoa of 1681 we can find both
Civitas Sancti Romuli and Magnifica Comunità di San Remo. The
question of etymology also centered on correct spelling, and perhaps
it is more on this point that a real battle broke out, especially
from the Fascist era. The best example of the uncertainty that
existed at the time is given by Girolamo Rossi's "History of the
City of Sanremo": he, in fact, writes "Sanremo" on the cover, but
the more frequently detached version appears in the text . In the
past, as already mentioned, the two versions coexisted quite
peacefully, but from the end of the 1920s, however, Istat did its
utmost to ensure that the name was written in the detached form "San
Remo", to standardize the name of the city to that of the other
places whose name refers to a saint, and also because the detached
form appeared in many maps of the past.
By consulting the
documents of the Municipal Archive it can be seen that on 2
September 1937 the podestà of the time, Giovanni Guidi, was informed
that the Central Statistical Institute had listed the Municipality
with the name detached (San Remo), in agreement with the Regio
Decree 19 February 1928 n. 453, published in the Official Gazette
no. 67 of 20 March 1928, (in which the aggregation of the
Municipality of Bussana to that of 'San Remo' was ordered) but in
contrast with what up to that moment carried out by the Municipal
Administration. Furthermore, Istat itself intervened directly on
February 8, 1938 to call the Municipality to comply with the
provision. However, to the prefect's invitation to comply, the mayor
replied: "We insist that the name be changed to Sanremo". On 8
August 1940 the president of the Central Statistical Institute again
recalled the Municipality by writing: "... this municipality will
have to change according to the name followed by this Institute [San
Remo, ed] the heading of the official paper as well as the stamps in
use at the municipal offices ", and asked for the" compliance
insurance "to be provided in writing. Therefore, on 30 August 1940
the podestà issued the following ordinance (prot. No. 15411):
"Please arrange for the name of the Municipality to be written in
the printed matter from now on San Remo instead of Sanremo".
The Second World War blocked the question, and the name of the
city continued to be used united, but immediately after the war it
was rekindled; consequently the mayor, with a service order dated 24
March 1954, prot. n. 89/6, sent the following letter to all the
offices: "We inform the SS.LL. that the exact spelling of the name
of our city is the following: San Remo. to want to inform the
employees, so that the exact name is used both in the printed matter
and in the communications ". This service order has never been
applied by the municipal bodies: despite, in fact, this official
"decision" of the Municipality, the name of San Remo continued to be
rejected at the local level, where the other version was mainly
used, such as, for example, in road, railway, tourist indications,
and practically everywhere in the documentation of the Municipality,
of the Province and often of the region; even the postcards for the
electoral consultations have always carried the name Sanremo. In the
documentation produced centrally, coming from the Official Gazette,
the Tax Registry and the documents of the Statistical Institute,
however, the San Remo form continued to be maintained. Thanks to the
dispute, however, it was possible to demonstrate how the attacked
version is more correct.
A first reason is that in
Christianity there is no saint named Remus (to whom to possibly
refer).
The second is that contrary to the other Gallo-Italic
dialects, San Remasco preserves the final unstressed, except after
the "r" and "n": "ö" and "ü" merge into "ü", while in the Italian
language in "or"; to clarify with an example: man (Latin homo)
becomes omu, while orto (Latin hortus) becomes ortu; to this,
moreover, is added the marked tendency to reduce two or more vowels
into diphthong that come close to each other due to the fall of the
consonants (for example laurà and lavurà which both mean to work).
Here, then, that "Rœmu", "Romulus", would have become "Remu" because
of the dialect, and therefore, badly transcribed, became "Remu", or
"Remo". Only after the approval of the Statute, following various
Council resolutions held between 1991 and 2002, was it definitively
sanctioned that the official name of the City was in the single-word
form Sanremo.
Sanremo has traces of human activity since ancient times, as
evidenced by the discovery of Paleolithic settlements. However it is
from Roman times that the city began to develop as a significant
settlement. It was therefore founded in Roman times along the Via Julia
Augusta, (continuation of the consular road Aurelia) and probably named
after Caio Matutio, who built a sumptuous villa around the primitive
oppidum, found in the vicinity of the current casino, around which grew
the inhabited area called Villa Matutia. Another interpretation refers
to the Roman divinity Mater Matuta, goddess of the Aurora, therefore
changed into Matutia and then Villa Matutiæ.
Whatever its origin,
however it is certain that, after the conversion of the population to
Christianity by the blessed Hormisda, the deacon Siro (later Bishop of
Genoa) and the bishop San Romolo (later a hermit), in the 9th century
the city it was subject to continuous attacks by Saracen pirates, who
forced the population to take refuge in the mountains.
After this
period of devastation, the primitive village was refounded on the coast,
in the current San Siro and Pigna area (so called due to the "winding"
shape with which it was built for defensive reasons), surrounded by
walls and defended by a castle, and therefore dedicated to San Romolo.
In fact, a document dates back to 979 in which some families asked
Bishop Teodolfo I for a plot of land at a low rental cost, which took
the name of castrum Sancti Romuli, dedicated to the bishop who "now
considered a saint and revered by the population who in his tomb pray
and invoke divine protection against the enemies, who continued to
plunder and kill".
The city first belonged to the diocese of
Albenga, then to the counts of Ventimiglia, and finally passed under the
control of the bishops of Genoa. In 1170 the city took part in a sea
battle, alongside the Republic of Genoa, against the Republic of Pisa,
with a galley built with wood obtained from the woods surrounding the
current hamlet of San Romolo.
In 1297 Sanremo was sold to the
noble Genoese families of Oberto Doria and Giorgio De Mari, who modified
the city administration and the municipal statute; in 1361 it passed
under the Republic of Genoa, until in 1367 the population made a
collection to redeem itself and become a free municipality, still under
the protection of Genoa, but with its own statute.
The city,
starting from the Middle Ages, made maritime navigation one of its
points of pride. In particular, given that the climate was particularly
mild, and the cultivation of citrus fruits was flourishing, the trade of
these fruits was carried out almost exclusively by sea, since the roads
at the time were rather damaged and dangerous. As confirmation of
seafaring ability, an old Provençal saying said that "Li gens de San
Rëmu navigou san remu" ("the people of San Remo sail without using
oars"), as they are experts in the use of sails. In fact, the annals of
Sanremo report, starting from 1435, a constant expansion and
modernization of the port, of which at the time it was said "there is no
beach in the whole domain of the Serenissima more numerous than boats
... as of seafaring people" .
The sixteenth century is for
Sanremo, and all the Riviera di Ponente and the Côte d'Azur, the period
of Barbary incursions (including those of the Barbary corsair
Barbarossa, who in 1544 sacked the city and plundered the co-cathedral
of San Siro), which would have afflicted the area for more than a
hundred years. In that period, moreover, the struggle between France and
Spain, i.e. between Francis I and Charles V, led France to ally with the
Turks, and this resulted in further upheavals (and it should be
remembered that in 1538 Sanremo hosted Pope Paul III who went to France
to try to mediate).
The battle of Parà is one of the glorious
moments in the city's history in the fight against the Barbary troops.
The dates in this regard are conflicting, which is also due to the lack
of availability of documents; however, Giuseppe Ferrari's research has
made it possible to shed some light. In 1543, with the resumption of
hostilities between France and Spain, Nice was preparing to be besieged
by the Turkish fleet. At that time the Genoese Luca Spinola, future doge
of Genoa, was podestà of Sanremo, who decided to send observers to check
the movements of the enemy fleet, which on 5 August, having left the
base and joined the French one anchored in Marseilles, had reached Nice.
On 6 August, hopes of a diplomatic settlement were dashed, as the Nicers
refused to surrender to the Turks.
While waiting to launch the
attack, during the night, a group of about 13 support galleons to the
fleet of Sultan Suleiman II, under the command of the corsair Barbarossa
(probably of Algerian origin) did not give up the possibility of looting
and moved towards Sanremo , hoping to catch the inhabitants still asleep
at dawn. The city, however, had prepared itself and could count on an
equal number of valid and armed men. The Barbary first tried to sack the
city, but after a very hard battle they failed and pretended to abandon
it. However, they landed near the then village of San Martino, but
despite the expedient, they found the inhabitants waiting for them,
under the command of the podestà Spinola. The battle then moved near a
hill at the foot of which, much further on, Verezzo would have arisen.
The fighting was very bitter, with heavy casualties on both sides, but
after hours of fighting the invaders were driven back and hastily
embarked on their ships.
In memory of the glorious event, the
hill was renamed Parà, or parade, since the audacious move of the
corsair had been parried. Even today, in the Verezzo countryside, a
cross marks the point where the victorious battle against the Barbary
took place. Furthermore, the letter in which Luca Spinola informed the
Superba government of what had happened is still present in the State
Archives of Genoa.
For almost two centuries it remained under the
Genoese protectorate. In 1748, with the end of the War of the Austrian
Succession (during which Genoa allied itself with the French and the
Spanish, causing the English bombardment of Sanremo in 1745) the
Habsburg presence in Italy had dwindled somewhat. Relations between
Austria and the Genoese Republic were never good, and Superba thought of
exploiting the situation to her advantage, definitively assuring herself
dominion over San Remo, which, although it enjoyed the statute of an
agreed municipality, nonetheless represented a thorn in the side for the
Republic, both for the competition of the port trades and for the
continuous revolts. Sanremo, in fact, considered itself Savoyard.
The pretext for implementing the project was the sending, the
following year, of the new commissioner, Gio Batta Raggio, in charge of
detaching Coldirodi from Sanremo, with a view to a more equitable
distribution of the expenses of the war that had just ended. In reality,
Genoa wanted to strengthen its presence in the west, worried by various
Savoy infiltrations, such as Finale and Seborga. It should also be added
that between Sanremo and Coldirodi there had always been mutual
incomprehension and harassment.
In 1752, the Collantini presented
a formal request for detachment from Sanremo, justifying it with the
excessive abuses suffered in the past, including the obligation to pay
gabelles without benefits and never having obtained representation in
the local parliament. Thus, on 1 February 1753, Genoa established that
from that moment Coldirodi, at the time La Colla, was to be considered
separate from the Magnificent Community of Sanremo, and at the same time
sent the cartographer colonel Matteo Vinzoni to trace the new borders
between the two municipalities. On June 6, he asked for the
collaboration of two deputies to establish the new terms, but the
Council replied that the choice had to be made by the entire Parliament,
but while the session called by the commissioner was in progress, a
group of citizens invaded the room requesting that Parliament be
convened. Excited moments followed, and the intervention of a large
number of soldiers and a shot from the arquebus fired from the
commissioner's palace constituted the signal for the revolt. The crowd
disarmed the soldiers and imprisoned Inspector Doria, together with his
family, and Vinzoni.
Shortly afterwards the big bell of San Siro
was solemnly rung to rally the population, who gathered joyfully
shouting "Viva San Romolo" and "Viva Savoia" and Parliament was
convened, which the following day decided to present a solemn petition
of annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia directly to King Carlo Emanuele
III, and, at the same time, ordered Vinzoni to renounce his office, on
pain of death. Furthermore, the city began to prepare for the inevitable
clash, for which arms and defenses were prepared, and he was appointed
war magistrate. The thing, however, did not take the right direction and
from the beginning did not give the desired results: the Sanremo
delegation was not even received by the king of Sardinia and furthermore
the municipalities of Ventimiglia, Bordighera, Taggia, Porto Maurizio
and Ceriana immediately dissociated since the uprising. Meanwhile, Genoa
had begun to arrest all the citizens of Sanremo present in the various
municipalities of the republic, and blocked all ships in the agreed
ports. On the morning of 13 June, 1,027 soldiers under the command of
General Agostino Pinelli arrived with three galleys and various smaller
ships, and asked for the release of the commissioner and the
cartographer. Obtained a sharp refusal, he gave the order to fire on the
city. The bombardment continued throughout the day, including the night,
and part of the following day, when the landing of troops also began, in
various areas, between Capo Nero, Pietra Lunga and the Foce. The battle
moved towards the old city, where the people of Sanremo, from the Porta
dei Cappuccini, responded to the bombardments by shelling in turn and
killing 2 soldiers and wounding 14 others.
Subsequently, the
Matuzians preferred to retreat to the old city, to better concentrate
their forces, thus leaving the less important positions in the hands of
the Genoese. In the meantime, the riflemen of the republic had managed
to occupy the convent of the Nicolites (ie the current Cottolengo) and
therefore had conquered the upper part of the city without practically
firing a shot. At this point, General Pinelli, seeing that the situation
had now become favorable to him, decided, very shrewdly, to propose an
agreement to the citizens, making use of the help of Fathers Balbi and
Curlo: if the rioters surrendered and freed the prisoners, they would
have been pardoned by the republic and he himself would have worked to
mitigate the punishment; otherwise, however, hostilities would have
continued "until the last extermination". The people of Sanremo, tired
and disorganized by now, decided to accept too hastily, and so Pinelli
was able to enter the city without any difficulty. After two days of
relative tranquility, during the night, General Pinelli began not to
respect the agreements, causing many people involved in the uprising to
be arrested. There were so many imprisoned that it was necessary to
incarcerate many of them in Palazzo Borea, which in the meantime had
become the headquarters of the Genoese.
On 16 June the Council
was convened and Pinelli ordered that the huge sum of 80,000 lire be
paid in two hours as compensation for damages. Since the population was
unable to raise it in time, the general took the councilors hostage and
deferred the payment over two days, but, as he received the sum, he
ordered another 100,000 lire to be delivered to him over the next eight
days. The terrified people of Sanremo were unable to collect the entire
amount, so a part was paid in the form of barrels of oil, which were
promptly sent to Genoa. Pinelli then continued his work as a tyrant. He
abolished the Statutes and all the privileges that, over time, had been
granted to the city, ordered the looting of the hamlets of Verezzo and
Poggio, decided to lower the bell of San Siro, which had started the
revolt, to the ground, sending it to Genoa together with the archives of
the city, and, in addition, had the bell tower cut off, establishing
that, inside the church, instead of the bishop's chair, that of the
representative of the Republic should be placed. It was a real wave of
terror, which did not spare even the city's churches from raids, which
were stripped of any valuables. Furthermore, those arrested were
speedily tried: four of them were hanged (and sentenced to post-mortem
exposure of the head), some were exiled, and others sentenced to 10
years' imprisonment or public corporal punishment. As a result, as many
citizens as they could fled to nearby towns, such as Pigna, Apricale and
Seborga, which were part of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
The news of
what was happening, fortunately, spread rapidly throughout Europe, and
even the Hapsburg Empire moved to defend Sanremo. Shortly afterwards,
then, on 4 September, Genoa issued a general pardon, from which,
however, the 14 main architects of the revolt remained excluded. Of
these, some died in prison, while others were sentenced to exile for
life; there were two thousand exiles, among the condemned and those
driven by fear. However, Pinelli's acts were denounced to the Genoese
Senate, which opened an investigation. Thus, all the atrocities
committed by him came to light, and consequently, on 12 October, after
having apologized and justified himself, he was forced to leave.
Francesco Maria Sauli replaced him, but the situation did not improve,
since the Sanremo delegation in Vienna worked to obtain imperial
protection and annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia. The news reached
the Genoese commissioner, who ordered a new wave of arrests and
violence, causing new escapes of frightened citizens. By the end of
November, the city was populated only by women, old people, and
children. Thus Genoa decided to issue a new pardon on March 4, 1754, but
despite everything the exiles did not return. Furthermore, the situation
ran aground, as Vienna took formal positions against Genoa; but the
Republic continued in its work, an imperial armed intervention appearing
almost impossible. Thus Sauli published the new economic regulation of
the city, in which, obviously, taxes were raised in order to keep the
population oppressed. The commissioner's last act was the approval of
the construction project for the Santa Tecla fort (which assumed various
uses over time, and was a prison until 1997), so that the Sanremos could
be "kept properly". The foundation stone was laid on 6 July 1755 and the
works were completed within a year. Vinzoni was then charged with
completing the work of separating the Colla and the cadastre was
updated.
At the same time, the San Remo delegation in Vienna
continued its work, and Maria Theresa of Austria acted as intermediary
with Genoa. Thus the Republic pardoned the exiles, returned many
confiscated goods, discounted thirty thousand lire from the annual taxes
and returned a bell (but the original one from San Siro is still in the
cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa). The city, however, remained
abandoned to itself, and the only positive thing was the reconstruction
of the port, abandoned since the time of Pinelli, whose works ended in
1786. The Genoese domination would only cease in 1815, when, with the
Restoration , all of Liguria was annexed to the longed-for Kingdom of
Sardinia.
The Napoleonic troops, in 1794, occupied the city which
became the capital of the Department of the Palms, then "Jurisdiction"
with the same name from 1798 with Sanremo as capital. In 1805, with the
annexation of Liguria to France, the arrondissement of Sanremo was
formed with the territory of the Jurisdiction of the Palms and the
nearby Monegasque, belonging to the Department of the Maritime Alps.
After the restoration of the Savoys (1814) it was annexed to the Kingdom
of Sardinia. The decline of the city had brought poor hygienic
conditions, which culminated in a serious cholera epidemic in 1837: the
construction of a new suburban cemetery and the setting up of a public
wash house date from this period.
From those years the city began
to grow from a tourist point of view: in 1864 the Tsarina Maria
Alexandrovna was the first to choose Sanremo to "winter", paving the way
for the elitist tourism of the Russian nobility, attracted by the mild
climate and the beauty of the places. Even the Empress Elisabeth of
Bavaria (Sissi, Empress of Austria) among her numerous and long journeys
through Europe (1870-1890) went several times to Sanremo.
In that
period admirable buildings and villas were built, mainly in Art Nouveau
style, for the European aristocracy who became semi-sedentary in the
town. Also at the end of the 19th century, the town saw the transition
from agriculture based on citrus groves, which was very flourishing, to
floriculture.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the most
qualified entertainment facilities for the demanding elite of the Belle
époque began to arise: the Casino, the golf course, the Sanremo-Monte
Bignone cable car, at the time the longest in the world, the racecourse,
the stadium, etc.
At the end of the First World War Sanremo was
chosen for the International Conference of the Straits, with which the
redistribution of the lands of the former Ottoman Empire was discussed,
including Palestine (assigned to Great Britain), Syria, Cilicia and
Lebanon (to France).
Furthermore, with the establishment of the
Festival, Sanremo acquired an even greater role in the collective
imagination of a town frequented by famous people, and as such it saw
tourism increase considerably. Therefore, the playful and recreational
activities for the new type of needs grew hand in hand with the building
speculation of the sixties and seventies, which brought about a
transformation that was anything but positive in many parts of the city:
the wild overbuilding effectively prevented a harmonious development of
the urban centre, which in the meantime has become increasingly populous
and chaotic. A fresco of this spasmodic growth of tourist activity and
the uncontrolled urban expansion that characterized the city from the
mid-fifties is traced with a critical eye by the Sanremo writer Italo
Calvino in his short novel Building speculation.
Traditionally,
there are three different ways of indicating the inhabitants of the
city: the Sanremaschi are those who have been born and lived in Sanremo
for generations; the people of Sanremo, those who reside or were born in
the city but have foreign origins (furesti); finally matuziani, used
more rarely, a term that originates from the ancient Roman site of Villa
Matutia, which brings together the inhabitants of the city of flowers as
a whole.
The majority of citizens are Catholic. Since 9 March 2014 the Bishop
of the Diocese of Ventimiglia-San Remo has been Mons. Antonio Suetta. In
the city there is the Collegiate Basilica of San Siro, Co-cathedral of
the Diocese. In the church of Santo Stefano (Piazza Cassini, ex
Gesuiti), the Tridentine Mass is celebrated daily.
There is also
a large community of Russian-speaking Orthodox Christians (who celebrate
mass in the ancient church of Christ the Savior - known as the "Russian
church" - near the Casino) and a Romanian-speaking community (which has
been entrusted with the church of the former convent of the Carmelites,
in Corso Cavallotti near the new station).
There are also some
small communities of Waldensian Christians (church in via Roma) and
Protestants (C.so Garibaldi) whose churches often host beautiful
concerts of sacred music, from J.S. Bach to Mendelssohn; some members of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are also present.
The locality obtained from FEE-Italia (Foundation for Environmental Education) the award of the Blue Flag for the quality of the services of the tourist port ("Portosole") in 2014 and subsequently in 2019.