In the old town of Taggia almost every noble palace dates from the fifteenth or the sixteenth century: Curlo in 1448, Vivaldi in 1458, the Asdente houses around 1473, Anfossi in 1578. Palazzo Lercari comes much later, in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and not on empty ground: it was built by raising existing buildings, adding storeys to an already crowded fabric, the usual answer in a walled town where space can only be won upwards. The name is that of the Lercari, a Genoese family that gave the Republic two doges, both called Giovanni Battista, who took office in 1563 and in 1642, and that put down roots in Taggia as well.
What to see
The palace plays its hand indoors: the interiors are late baroque, while the front follows the line of the lane like the houses next door and attempts no display. That is the logic of a family palace in a compact town, where wealth was shown beyond the door and not on the street.
Today the building serves the town: it houses the historical archive of Taggia and the civic library. That is also why anyone can walk in, because the municipal papers and the books keep open rooms that would otherwise stay private.
Visiting
The old town of Taggia lies in the immediate hinterland of the Argentina valley, some three kilometres from the sea and from the seaside quarter of Arma; you reach it on foot from the medieval bridge over the torrent, 270 metres long and fifteen arches, grown by additions between the thirteenth and the eighteenth century. From there you climb through the lanes, where within a few hundred metres you pass the other palaces and the two confraternity oratories. Palazzo Lercari keeps the hours of the services it hosts: those of the library and the archive, not those of a museum.
Our editors' tip
Go on a weekday, while the library is open: it is the only way to see the late baroque vaults without asking favours, and the staff in the archive can tell you more about the house than any notice board. Then walk another hundred metres uphill, towards the ruins of the castle at the top of the town: from up there it is obvious at a glance why the Lercari, in order to build a home, had to build on top of somebody else's.