Patron saint festival In 160 days
Feast of the Madonna di Maralunga
📅 Every year, on 25 March
On 25 March Lerici celebrates the Madonna di Maralunga, in the sanctuary that has stood beside the church of San Francesco d'Assisi since 1632.
The name comes from the holm oaks. The hill the castle stands on was covered with them, podium Ilycis, and from Ilex came Erice, then l'Erice, then Lerici; the town's coat of arms still carries a holm oak.
In the Middle Ages the bay was a way of skipping a stretch of road: pilgrims, travellers and merchants who wanted to avoid the impassable country of the eastern Riviera took ship at Genoa and picked up the land route here, or the other way round. The town belonged to the bishop-counts of Luni, confirmed to them by Frederick Barbarossa in 1186, then to Castruccio Castracani and the Malaspina. There are 10,090 residents.
The Lerici guide
What to see 6
Villa Magni · castello di San Terenzo · castello di Lerici and 3 more
What to eat here 1
Pesto alla Genovese
Where to stay 24
24 places to stay · top rated: Piccolo Hotel Del Lido 9.5 · Hotel Florida Lerici 9.2
Events & festivals 1
Next up: Feast of the Madonna di Maralunga, Thursday 25 March
Getting there
Nearest airport: Pisa Galilei, 58 km away
Tours, tickets and experiences
Bookable on GetYourGuideExperiences in Lerici
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Lerici 1
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What to see in Lerici
Villa Magni The white house on the shore at San Terenzo where Shelley spent his last summer 
castello di San Terenzo The villagers built it themselves in 1360 against corsairs: a stone pentagon over the bay. 
castello di Lerici A pentagonal tower, a Gothic chapel and a 1555 plaque: Genoa and Pisa fought over this rock. 
chiesa di San Francesco The baroque church at Lerici that keeps the Madonna of Maralunga, found at sea in 1480. 
chiesa di San Giorgio On the Treggiano point at Tellaro: apse and bell tower over the sea, and the octopus that rang the bells. 
chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta A sixteenth-century relief of the plague saints, in a San Terenzo parish church rebuilt twice. Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Lerici
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Lerici, but an easy day trip away.
Cappella di villa Mirabello 📍 Monza · 2.9 km Chapel of villa Mirabello in the Parco di Monza: the Durini villa of 1656-1675, oldest in the park. Villa Reale 📍 Monza · 4.1 km Villa Reale of Monza, Piermarini's neoclassical palace begun in 1777, home to Habsburgs, Napoleon and Savoy. Chiesa di Santa Maria al Carrobiolo 📍 Monza · 4.8 km Church of Santa Maria al Carrobiolo in Monza, with works by Peterzano and Moncalvo, vault frescoed 1707-1709. Chiesa di San Pietro Martire 📍 Monza · 4.8 km San Pietro Martire in Monza, 14th-century church for the Dominican killed in 1252, with a 15th-century cloister. Santuario del Santo Crocifisso 📍 Desio · 5.1 km Desio's Neo-Gothic sanctuary, home to a sixteenth-century crucifix that was crowned in 1948. Duomo di Monza 📍 Monza · 5.2 km Monza Cathedral, founded by Queen Theodelinda around 595, home of the Iron Crown.