Abbazia di San Girolamo al Monte di Portofino (Cervara)

On the coast between Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino, the Abbey of San Girolamo al Monte di Portofino—known as La Cervara—has overlooked the gulf since its foundation in 1361. The complex includes a medieval monastery, a fortified tower and a terraced garden.

Why it matters

La Cervara’s history spans its Benedictine foundation, Renaissance prominence, corsair raids, suppression and restoration. The abbey is within the comune of Santa Margherita Ligure. Its church, chapter house and cloister preserve the architecture of the monastic complex. Inside, the chapter house, cloister and church preserve the measured architecture of the monastic centuries. Outside, a terraced Italian garden of clipped boxwood overlooks the protected marine area.

What to notice

The abbey’s guided route includes the crypt and the fifteenth-century chapter house, once used for the monks’ meetings. The sixteenth-century cloister frames the courtyard on quadrangular arcades; with quadrangular arcades. The church of San Girolamo anchors the complex, and the Torre Saracena — the defensive tower raised in the sixteenth century against corsair raids — gives the complex its silhouette. The garden includes the Giardino delle Gardenie and terraces above the Belvedere, with geometric boxwood hedges and a seventeenth-century marble fountain of a putto among citrus, bougainvillea and wisteria. The Terrazzo Portofino overlooks the promontory’s protected waters.

Context and history

The foundation in 1361 was the work of Benedictine monks, whom the Diocese of Chiavari credits to the initiative of Guido Scetten, archbishop of Genoa and a poet linked to Petrarch. The monastery flourished in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Visitors recorded by the abbey include Petrarch, Catherine of Siena — who mentions the place in her correspondence — popes Gregory XI, Urban VI and Pius VII, Don John of Austria in 1574 and, much later, Guglielmo Marconi. In 1546 Pope Paul III raised it to the rank of abbey. Corsair attacks along this coast prompted the fortifications still visible today. The late eighteenth century brought revolutionary-era suppression and the monks' departure; after them came French Trappists, the sale by the Diocese of Chiavari in 1859, the Somascan Fathers, Carthusians in the early twentieth century and, from 1937, private ownership. Declared a national monument in 1912, the abbey passed to its current owners in 1990, and restoration under the Liguria superintendency, with fresco work directed by Pinin Brambilla Barcilon, returned the complex to its current condition.