Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista

The parish church of Monterosso's old town is a landmark of Ligurian Gothic architecture. Its façade alternates pale marble and dark local stone, and a carved date of 1307 marks its completion. A bell tower that began as part of the village's defences stands beside it.

Why it matters

The church grew with the medieval borgo and served as its parish. Its position on Piazza don Giovanni Minzoni and its distinctive striped façade give it a central place in the old town's history and architecture. The church belongs to the thirteenth-century Gothic building tradition that spread along the Ligurian coast.

What to notice

The façade's pointed portal sits beneath a carved white-marble rose window, attributed to the sculptors Matteo and Pietro da Campiglio. A date of 1307 is carved into the façade, and an eighteenth-century fresco of the Baptism of Christ fills the portal lunette. The bell tower between the entrance and apse originated as a thirteenth-century watchtower, was heightened in the fifteenth century and crowned with Ghibelline swallow-tail battlements.

Inside, three aisles lead toward the presbytery. The baptismal font dated 1360 is the oldest surviving furnishing. A Madonna of the Rosary is attributed to the school of Luca Cambiaso. The high altar and wooden choir stalls date to the Baroque remodelling of 1734; restoration in 1963–64 removed later additions and brought more of the medieval fabric into view.

Context and history

The church was built during the thirteenth century; the date carved on its façade marks the completion of the works in 1307. The village's defensive system included towers on the surrounding heights, the castle above the borgo and the watchtower that became the church's bell tower. Later changes included the 1734 remodelling of the altar area and the twentieth-century restoration, which sought to recover the Gothic structure beneath later layers. The church remains the parish of Monterosso's historic centre.