Above the entrance portal, in a niche, a statue of Saint Anne is still in place: it is very nearly all that stands of the old chapel, now a ruin. It sits close to the monastery of San Prospero, at Camogli, alongside a second chapel dedicated to the same saint and probably built in the course of the seventeenth century.
What to see
The two chapels of Sant'Anna, the old one and the new one, stand a short way apart. Of the first there remain the unroofed walls and the niche over the doorway with the statue of the saint; the second, seventeenth-century, is a small building still intact.
The monastery next door is far later: it was built by the Benedictine monks of the congregation of Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto Maggiore of Siena and opened for worship on 2 July 1883. The two chapels, then, had already been there for at least two centuries when the Olivetans arrived.
Visiting
The landmark to aim for is the monastery of San Prospero, in the town itself: the chapels lie in its immediate surroundings. The old one can only be seen from outside, being a ruin; the new one keeps no fixed opening hours, since the religious life of the complex is that of the monastic community.
Our editors' tip
Look for the niche above the portal first and the rest afterwards: in a collapsed building, the statue of Saint Anne is the one thing left in its original position, and it is easy to walk past without noticing it. It is worth tying the stop to the walk up to the monastery, so that both chapels fit into the same half hour.
