In 1130 Pope Innocent II granted the church of San Martino to the monks of the abbey of San Fruttuoso di Camogli: it is one of the earliest documents in which the building appears, and the parish community was older still. The church of the Divo Martino, as Portofino calls it, stands in the oldest part of the village, on Salita della Chiesa, and goes back to the 12th century in Lombard Romanesque forms; it was consecrated on 10 June 1548 and heavily reworked in the 19th century, which is the face we see today.
What to see
Inside there is a Maragliano, and it alone justifies the climb: the wooden group of the Deposition of Christ is by Anton Maria Maragliano, the Genoese sculptor who filled the churches of Liguria with polychrome carvings. Beside it hang a Madonna of the Rosary from the Genoese school of the 18th century, an Annunciation of the same century and a canvas of Saints Roch, Sebastian and Pantaleon, painted in the 16th century by a Ligurian using the technique of Teramo Piaggio.
The plan has three naves and the façade is pierced by a rose window. Ownership changed hands more than once: in 1550 a bull of Pope Julius III assigned it to Prince Andrea Doria and his heirs, and in 1696 the archbishop of Genoa raised the parish to the rank of archpriest's church. Since 1892 it has belonged to the diocese of Chiavari.
Visiting
You walk up from the square, a few minutes of steps between the narrow houses of the old village; it is the same route that continues higher to the church of San Giorgio and to Castello Brown, so it makes sense to line up the three stops in one morning. This is a working parish church: opening follows the services, and during a celebration or a wedding entry may be suspended. Inside the light is low and your eyes need a moment to adjust.
Our editors' tip
Go early, before the village fills up: with the church empty the wood of the Deposition, which looks like stone in the half-light, reads far better, down to the folds of the drapery. Then step outside and keep climbing: a few flights are enough for the roofs to fall below you and the gulf to open all at once.