The patron saint of Imperia has been, since 1991, Saint Leonard of Porto Maurizio, celebrated on 26 November: his birth house, still open to visitors in the Parasio district, recalls the origins of the Franciscan saint.
Imperia was born in 1923 from the administrative merger of several suppressed municipalities, including Oneglia and Porto Maurizio, which for centuries had remained independent entities, even belonging to different states: Oneglia was in fact a Savoyard enclave within Genoese territory from around 1560 until 1815. Precisely because of this divided history, the town's two main districts still each keep their own patron saint today: Saint Maurice the Martyr for Porto Maurizio and Saint John the Baptist for Oneglia, each with its own patronal feast at a different time of year.
Located on the Riviera di Ponente, Porto Maurizio is gathered on a promontory jutting out to sea, rich in caruggi (narrow alleys) and small creuze (lanes); the short valleys behind it act as a natural shelter from the coldest winds, giving the town a particularly mild climate, repeatedly praised as one of the best in Italy.
