Ruderi di San Tomaso

On a low hill above Santa Maria del Campo, among olive groves, stand the remains of the monastic church of San Tomaso: a column with fragments of arches, squared-stone walls and tall, double-splayed windows overlooking the valley. The church was founded around 1160 and had fallen out of use by the end of the sixteenth century.

Why it matters

San Tomaso was one of the earliest documented religious foundations in the Tigullio. The monastery was connected with a Genoese house of nuns and held lands in the Rapallo hills. Its surviving remains make the medieval complex legible in the landscape, while its history records the gradual loss of its holdings and its eventual suppression.

What to notice

One column remains standing, with its base and capitals supporting fragments of arches. The church had two parallel naves, and its elongated windows widen toward the interior to admit light. The incomplete façade is asymmetrical, with the entrance placed in the right-hand nave. Squared stone survives in stretches of wall against the rougher construction of the surrounding countryside.

Context and history

Historian Arturo Ferretto dated the foundation to around 1160; a deed of 4 February 1161 already refers to lands belonging to the church of San Tommaso. The Genoese nuns' house received papal protection, including a record by Gregory IX on 3 February 1230. After disputes over its holdings, the Genoese curia reaffirmed the monastery's dependence on San Tommaso of Genoa in 1468. In 1582 the apostolic visitor Francesco Bossio ordered the unused oratory sold. On 4 November 1597 Archbishop Matteo Rivarola confirmed the sale of its assets to fund the parish church; the bells were transferred to Santa Maria and demolition stopped above the foundations. The municipality received the site through Giovanni Merello's bequest.