Chiesa di Sant'Andrea

Sant'Andrea is Levanto's historic parish church, distinguished by alternating bands of white marble and dark green serpentinite. Its medieval architecture and later furnishings reflect the town's long relationship with Genoese culture.

Why it matters

The church is documented in the thirteenth century. Its original three-aisled plan was enlarged around the middle of the fifteenth century to create five aisles, and inscriptions record its consecration in 1463. Successive changes preserve both medieval and post-medieval phases rather than a single unaltered design.

What to notice

The striped facade combines a rose window with pointed arches and carved heads. A fresco above the portal depicts the enthroned Madonna and Child with Saints Andrew and John the Evangelist. Inside are the carved wooden choir of 1589, the pulpit of 1716 and the organ built by the Serassi brothers in 1825–1826. Paintings include an Adoration of the Magi attributed to Andrea Semino, Giovanni Battista Merano's Death of Saint Joseph and Paolo Gerolamo Brusco's Saint Andrew in Glory with a view of Levanto. A local tradition links the wooden crucifix with its recovery from the shore at Vallesanta.

Context and history

The presbytery was lengthened and the apse rebuilt in 1584–1585, preceding the installation of the choir. The bell tower acquired its later form in 1805. Restorations associated with Alfredo d'Andrade in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries sought to recover the building's medieval appearance, making restoration itself part of the church's architectural history.