Oratorio di San Giacomo

Next to the former church of the Madonna della Costa, a confraternity documented in Levanto since the Middle Ages keeps its oratory dedicated to St James, patron of sailors. A fifteenth-century marble relief crowns the entrance, and an 1827 organ fills the single nave after its restoration.

Why it matters

Confraternity oratories served as meeting and worship places for lay brotherhoods in Liguria. Levanto's is dedicated to St James, traditionally regarded as a patron of sailors. The brotherhood of San Giacomo Apostolo is recorded in the town's documents from the late medieval period, and its members originally worshipped at an altar in the neighbouring Madonna della Costa church before building their own hall. The state heritage catalogue dates the oratory to the seventeenth century. The confraternity remains active and organizes Levanto's Festa del Mare in honour of its saint.

What to notice

The facade carries a notable feature: a white Carrara marble bas-relief of the first half of the fifteenth century, the work of an unknown Lombard sculptor, set above the entrance beneath a painted panel of the early twentieth century. Inside, the single nave contains a wooden statue of San Giacomo of the seventeenth century, two processional crucifixes including the eighteenth-century crocifisso maggiore, an altar of the sixteenth century linked to the Madonna di Soviore, and eighteenth-century canvases of the Doctors of the Church: Jerome, Gregory, Augustine and Ambrose.

A mechanical organ built by the Agati firm of Pistoia in 1827 occupies the cantoria over the entrance. It was restored and presented in a concert in 2008. The oratory stands beside the former church of the Madonna della Costa, among the lanes leading toward the port.

Context and history

The confraternity belongs to the diocesan network of brotherhoods of La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato. The state heritage catalogue records the oratory as a confraternal building of the seventeenth century at Salita S. Giacomo, under the protection of Liguria's Soprintendenza. Bishops of La Spezia have kept close ties with the brotherhood; the bishop emeritus Mons. Bassano Staffieri was made an honorary confratello in 2000 and celebrated the feast-day Eucharist in the oratory for years afterward.

Confraternity assembly records document repeated attention to the roof. A campaign called Adotta una Tegola helped finance conservation work before the organ's 2008 restoration.