| Apricale | ||
 | ||
| State | Italy | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Liguria | |
| Territory | Riviera di Ponente | |
| Altitude | 273 m a.s.l. | |
| Surface | 19.94 km² | |
| Inhabitants | 624 (2011 census) | |
| Name inhabitants | Apricalesi | |
| Prefix tel | 39 0184 | |
| POSTAL CODE | 18035 | |
| Time zone | UTC 1 | |
| Patron | Sant'Antonio Abate (8 September) | |
Position
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| Institutional website | ||
Apricale is a center of the Liguria.
To know
It is part of the most beautiful villages in Italy and has been awarded the orange flag by the Italian Touring Club.
Geographical notes
It is located in the Mendazo valley, a tributary of the Nervia, about ten km from the coast in the hinterland of BordigheraIt is 17 km from Bordighera, 15 from Ventimiglia, 26 from Menton, 27 from Sanremo, 52 from Imperia.
Background
Former settlement of the ancient Ligurian Celts, Apricus, the sunny Apricale, after having been the seat of Roman camps, became a town around the year 1000, when the Counts of Ventimiglia founded the castle, around which the inhabited area took shape over time. Commune in 1200, it had its own statutes in 1267. Feudo dei Doria di Dolceacqua, it was always their possession, except for a parenthesis in the fifteenth century with the Grimaldis of Monaco. After an inauspicious eighteenth century marked by epidemics, famines, war expenses, in 1815 the town was annexed (like the whole region) to the Savoy Kingdom of Sardinia.
How to orient yourself
Apricale: full screen map.Neighborhoods
Its municipal territory also includes the villages of Foa, Osaggio and Semoigo.
How to get
By plane
- Cristoforo Colombo Airport in Genoa. It is connected to the Genova Brignole railway station with the Volabus, a bus service calibrated for national and international arrivals.
- Direct flights: Milan Malpensa, Turin, Cagliari, Naples, Palermo, Catania, Alghero, Olbia, Trapani, Trieste, Rome Fiumicino.
- International flights: London Stansted, Paris CDG, Cologne, Munich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Istanbul.
- Galileo Galilei Airport of Pisa. It is more convenient to get there Riviera di Levante, Spice or le Five lands as it is directly connected by train.
By car
Motorway exits of Bordighera or Ventimiglia on the A10 motorway some flowers.- From Ventimiglia take the provincial road 64 Ventimiglia - Pigna; from this the provincial road 62 branches off at Dolceacqua in the direction of Apricale; or (further on) from Isolabona take the provincial road 63.
Motorway exits of On the train
Railway station of Ventimiglia.
Railway station of How to get around
What see
Lizard Castle
Castle of the Lizard
- 1 Castle of the Lizard. The manor is inserted in the historic village of the town, on a rocky spur dominating the underlying saddle. The feudal castle was most likely built in the 10th century by the Counts of Ventimiglia and later belonged to the noble Doria family. In ancient times the structure was equipped with two square towers, very similar to the castle of Dolceacqua, until later one of the two towers that remained standing was transformed into the bell tower of the nearby church of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.
- In the following centuries it underwent several alterations that transformed the castle into a real fortress considered impregnable. The castle, however, fell in 1523 in the siege carried out by Bishop Agostino Grimaldi, who partially destroyed the fortress in an attempt to capture Bartolomeo Doria, believed to be responsible for the murder of Agostino's brother and who found refuge in the castle. The structure therefore had to be rebuilt again, but with reduced military functions compared to the previous use. In 1634 the castle became the property of the Duchy of Savoy and then returned, in 1652, to belong to Francesco Doria; in 1806 it will be sold by the family to Stefano Cassini who transformed the castle into his private residence.
- In the twentieth century the new heir of the castle, Fruttuoso Cassini, surgeon, created two apartments inside the castle which he later had frescoed by the painter Leonida Martini and also created a hanging garden with a new wall towards the church. Today, after a period of neglect, it is owned by the Municipality of Apricale which uses the building for exhibitions and cultural conferences. In a corridor, created between the historic walls of the castle, the "Theater Gallery" has been set up where the various posters, starting from 1990, of the cultural events taking place in the village are exhibited. The silhouettes of the Tarots of the Genoese artist Emanuele Luzzati are also preserved.
Church and historic center
- 2 Parish Church of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, via Fiume. The parish church is located in the heart of the historic center of the medieval village of Apricalese, in front of the main squareTorracca. Built starting from the thirteenth century over the centuries it took on various architectural aspects and profound changes compared to the original structure in Romanesque or Gothic style. The most radical modification was the reversal of the entrance in 1760 of the previous seventeenth-century plant; the new body in Baroque style and the entrance was thus led to look directly into the underlying square as well as the adjacent castle of the Lizard. The façade dates back to the revisitation in neo-Romanesque style implemented in 1935. The two portals above the side entrances are the work of Giovanni Viale, while the rose window above the main entrance depicts, with the mosaic technique, the Purification of the Virgin Mary and the Presentation in the Temple. The two glazed windows of the facade represented the figures of Saint Louis and Saint Agnes.
- The interior consists of three naves and divided by two rows of four pillars each; the mosaic floor is the work of Giuseppe Tamagno in 1903. In the vaults the frescoes, depicting floral motifs and saints, were made by the painter Leonida Martini in 1904; the paintings, on the other hand, can be dated between the end of the seventeenth century and the nineteenth century.
- The bell tower of the church was obtained from the ancient square tower of the castle at the top of which a bicycle facing upwards was fixed. The singular and curious installation is nothing more than a contemporary artistic work of 2000 by Sergio Bianco, The force of non-gravity.
Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli
- 3 Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, via degli Angeli. Located along the ancient mule track to Isolabona, near the Rio San Rocco, it stands on a rocky spur outside the town of Aprica. In fact, there is no certain and documentable information of the ancient church until 1520, the year in which it is mentioned in a testamentary bequest, leading historians to suppositions about its origins, perhaps a chapel for resting or a "guard" chapel along the path downstream. The building has a single rectangular nave - with the subdivision into three spans closed by the apse - decorated with simple cycles of frescoes made between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries; the latter were restored by the Superintendence for Artistic and Historical Heritage of Liguria in the two-year period 1989-1990.
- The vault of the first bay is frescoed with depictions of the Doctors of the Church, dating back to the first decades of the 13th century, while the cycle of the Coronation of the Virgin Mary in the second bay can be dated to the 15th century; between the first and second spans the noble coats of arms of the Doria and Grimaldi, both feudal lords of Apricale are depicted.
- Scenes from the life of Mary are instead the sixteenth-century frescoes present in the third bay, while Episodes from the childhood of Jesus are visible in the frescoed part of the apse. The painters Bartolomeo Asmio and Antonio Semeria, respectively of Sanremo and Coldirodi, are given the pictorial authorship of the frescoes of the Mysteries of the Rosary in the side walls.
- 4 Church of Sant'Antonio, via Cavour. According to some sources, the church may date back to the 13th century, of which the apse in sandstone blocks remains intact. A substantial intervention of revisiting and restoration took place between 1771 and 1776, due to severe decay, where the roof and the facade of the seventeenth century were rebuilt. The building has a single rectangular nave inside with the presence of four bays plus the apse. The fresco depicting Jesus enclosed between two arches of light is preserved in the latter architectural element; in the upper register other representations of the saints Antonio abate, Bartolomeo and Zeno are recognizable. These paintings, now deteriorated, could be dated between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
- On the sides there are two altars where the two paintings of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Virgin Mary and the Apostles - right - and the Pietà between Saint Lucia and Saint Agnes - left - both attributed to the painter Bartolomeo Asmio di Sanremo. Other paintings depict the Nativity with Saint Jerome and saints, L ' Coronation of the Virgin Mary and the Adoration of the Magi. There is also a 1640 wooden statue of Saint Anthony the Abbot.
- The last restorations to the normally closed building date back to the nineties.
Oratory of San Bartolomeo
- Oratory of San Bartolomeo. Dating back to the 16th century, it is located in an elevated position above the double arch of the fountain, in front of the church of the Purification of the Virgin Mary and the castle of the Lizard. Formerly the seat of the local brotherhood, it was in the 18th century that the building was plastered and most likely decorated in the Baroque style. The façade has four pilasters with Corinthian capitals in relief and a large elliptical oculus above the main door. The interior has a single rectangular nave with a vaulted roof. On the right wall there is an oil painting depicting Saint Anthony the Abbot dating back to the early sixteenth century. Coming from the church of Sant'Antonio, near the cemetery, it was restored in 1960, bringing the painting back to its original colors, and according to some artistic expertise it could be compared to the work of the painter Ludovico Brea or of the pictorial school.
- Of considerable artistic value is the polyptych with six sections with predella above the main altar. In the center are depicted the Madonna della Neve with Child - formerly celebrated by the local brotherhood on August 5th - and the faithful; the two saints depicted on the sides are identifiable with the figures of San Bartolomeo and San Lorenzo. In the other panels, the personalities and scenes of the Pietà, of the Madonna with St. John the Baptist, of Jesus sitting on the tomb, the archangel Gabriel and the Annunciation are also recognizable. The polyptych, most likely made by local craftsmen and artists, was commissioned by the local Micaelis Cassini de Brigali on 2 March 1544. There are also two statues of St. Bartholomew and the Madonna della Neve, the latter made by the sculptor Paolo Olivari of Genoa in 1859.
- Chapel of San Vincenzo Ferrer. Dating back to the 16th century, but revised in Baroque forms, it is located along the provincial road to Perinaldo about one kilometer from the center of Apricale. The statue of the saint is kept in a niche on the façade.
- Chapel of San Martino. Perhaps already an ancient Romanesque church, the first information on the chapel dates back to the sixteenth century. It preserves traces of sixteenth-century frescoes in the basin of the apse.
- Chapel of San Rocco. Built along the mule track to Pigna, in the northern area of the Apricalese village, it is mentioned in a testamentary deed dated 1576.
- Ruins of the church of San Pietro in Ento. The building was, according to historical sources, the oldest religious structure in the area and most likely its construction date dates back to a period well before the birth of the medieval village of Aprica. Located about three kilometers from the center of Apricale, along the road to Pigna, the church was the first parish church of the small villages in the valley. Of the ancient church, perhaps of Romanesque origin, only a few ruins that cannot be visited remain today.
Events and parties
- New Oil Festival, In the square in front of the castle.
- Spring Festival, In the square in front of the castle.
- Valentine's Day, In the square in front of the castle.
in February. - Pansarola Festival, In the square in front of the castle. Second Sunday of September. Pansarola is a local sweet pancake.
in February.What to do
Shopping
In the area of the Taggiasca olive, Apricale is City of Oil ; its producers also process olive pâté, pickled olives, pesto, acacia and chestnut honey.
How to have fun
Where to eat
In the village kitchen we find stuffed vegetable appetizers, meat or chard ravioli, tagliarini with pesto, roast leg of lamb, rabbit with olives in Rossese wine, wild boar with polenta.
Average prices
- 1 Apricale Da Delio Restaurant, Piazza Vittorio Veneto 9 (reserved area for smokers and non-smokers), ☎ 39 0184 208008, @[email protected]. Monday and Tuesday closed for weekly rest.
- 2 The Kissing Shack, Via Roma 12, ☎ 39 0184 208137, @[email protected]. closed Monday evening and Tuesday all day.
- 3 The Caves of the Giuditta Zarusca inn, Via Roma 1, ☎ 39 0184 208522.
- 4 [link previously not working]Trattoria Pizzeria Pub Al Solito Posto, Via Roma, 48, ☎ 39 380 7860331.
- 5 To each, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II (located in the main square of Apricale), ☎ 390184 208588. Bar trattoria with dishes linked to the territory, good value for money, to be frequented in summer with the outdoor tables overlooking the square
Where stay
Average prices
- 1 Apricus Locanda, Via IV Novembre 5, ☎ 39 339 6008622, @[email protected].
- 2 Locanda Dei Carugi, Via Roma 14, ☎ 39 0184 209010.
- 3 Locanda La Favorita restaurant, Strada San Pietro, 1, ☎ 39 0184 208186, @[email protected].
- 4 From Marta, Via Martiri della Libertà, 54, ☎ 39 0184 192 8315, @[email protected]. Bed and breakfast.
- 5 From Giua ', Piazza Vittorio Emanuele 7, ☎ 39 0184 208555, @[email protected]. Bed and breakfast.
High prices
- 6 Muntaecara Albergo Diffuso, Piazza Vittorio Veneto, 2 (Four stars), ☎ 39 0184 209030, @[email protected].
Safety
Pharmacy
- 1 Mungari, Viale Rimembranze, 3 / A, ☎ 39 0184 208020.
How to keep in touch
Post office
- 2 Italian post, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, ☎ 39 0184 208110, fax: 39 0184 208110.
Around
- Dolceacqua
- Bordighera - Important seaside resort, has the ancient center on a promontory.
- Ventimiglia
- Sanremo — City of flowers and of the Festival, is an important center of the Riviera di Ponente.
Useful information
- IAT - Tourist Information Office, Via Roma 21, ☎ 39 0184 208641.
