In 1547, the Fieschi conspiracy having failed and Gian Luigi being dead, his brother Gerolamo shut himself up here with his followers. Genoa sent Agostino Spinola to besiege the castle and, on Andrea Doria's suggestion, had it mined and blown up. Gerolamo was beheaded close by, near the chapel of San Rocco.
The ruins still give the measure of it: the parade ground was some seventy metres long and twenty-five wide, closed by a thick crenellated wall and a ditch. On the municipal coat of arms, today, the Fieschi bands sit together with Genoa's cross of Saint George: the losers and the winners on the same shield. The population is 2,062.
Castello Fieschi
Pesto alla Genovese
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Next up: Saint John Beheaded, patron and witness to a conspiracy, Sunday 22 August
Nearest airport: Genova, 20 km away
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📅 Every year, on the second-to-last Sunday of August
Montoggio celebrates Saint John Beheaded on the second-to-last Sunday of August; the town's castle was the scene in 1547 of the end of the Fieschi conspiracy against the Republic of Genoa.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Montoggio, but an easy day trip away.
