It defended neither a harbour nor a walled town: the tower raised in August 1562 above the bay of San Fruttuoso was there to protect a handful of fishermen's houses and a freshwater spring, the one the monks of the abbey had used for centuries, from raids by Barbary corsairs. It was built by Giovanni, Andrea and Pagano Doria, heirs of admiral Andrea Doria, and named after him: in doing so they honoured the patronage clause that Pope Julius III had granted the old admiral in 1551.
What to see
The tower is a square block set along the steep stairway that links the abbey to the fishing hamlet. The Doria arms, the imperial eagle, appear on two of its facades, with further carving running along the cornices and corbels. What stands today is not the original outline: in the seventeenth century abbot Orazio Spinola had a new roof put on, and that is the one you see.
The armament shows how seriously the threat was taken: three bronze cannons, a bombard and 33 muskets and arquebuses, at a cost of 2687 gold scudi. On the rocky spur at the western end of the bay stands the Torretta as well, ordered by the Senate of the Republic of Genoa in 1561 for 940 lire: a truncated pyramid with two large and two small loopholes, room for eight soldiers and two smerigli, small-calibre guns.
Visiting
No road reaches San Fruttuoso. You arrive by boat — frequent sailings from Camogli, Recco, Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure, Rapallo, Chiavari, Lavagna and Sestri Levante, plus a direct link from Genoa — or on foot through the Portofino regional park, from Portofino Vetta or Portofino Mare: ninety minutes of steep descent on either trail. The tower comes up as you climb the stairway from the beach. The whole complex has belonged to the FAI since 1983, given by Frank and Orietta Pogson Doria Pamphilj.
Our editors' tip
Look at the tower from below, stopping on the steps halfway up: from there the eagle on the two facades reads clearly, and you can see how the seventeenth-century roof softened a building made to carry artillery. Plan your return on one of the last boats, too: once the day trippers have gone, the bay is left to the few who sleep there and the stairway falls quiet.