Torre di Punta Crena

Punta Crena closes Varigotti's bay with olive terraces and a low, square-based watchtower built over earlier foundations. Beneath the tower are remains of a Byzantine stronghold and a medieval castle; the promontory's archaeological and natural heritage now form part of a protected landscape above the sea.

Why it matters

The headland preserves successive layers of coastal history. A Byzantine castrum occupied the clifftop in the sixth and seventh centuries, and a medieval castle later stood on the plateau before Genoa destroyed it in 1341. The present two-storey tower, built on the base of earlier remains, belongs to a later phase of coastal defence. The olive terraces and dry-stone walls around the ruins connect this military history with the long cultivation of the hillside.

What to notice

The present tower is a low quadrilateral structure with a semicircular gun platform in front, built from stone reused on the site. A drawing by Domenico Revello from 1584 shows two towers on the summit and a lighthouse at the harbour mouth. Around the buildings, an ancient olive grove follows dry-stone terraces. The protected area also includes Mediterranean vegetation, a botanical garden and ponds associated with local amphibians; its reptile collection focuses on the ocellated lizard.

Context and history

Archaeological remains identify the Byzantine settlement and the medieval fortification later destroyed by Genoa in 1341. A watchtower is traditionally associated with the sixteenth-century coastal defence network, while the structure that survives today is dated to the early nineteenth century and incorporates the earlier tower base. A restoration project carried out between 2021 and 2024 renewed the naturalistic area and its interpretation, bringing the promontory's archaeological remains, cultivated terraces and local habitats into a single landscape.