The patroness of Lerici is the Madonna di Maralunga, celebrated on 25 March. Her sanctuary, rebuilt in its present form between 1632 and 1636, stands beside the church of San Francesco d'Assisi, in the main town.
The name comes from the Maralunga headland, where in 1410 stood the church of Santa Maria Annunziata, enlarged in 1420 with a monastery of Augustinian friars — the same order that around 1490 also built the Augustinian convent closer to the town. When the order was suppressed in 1799 under Napoleonic decrees, that church on the headland was deconsecrated and closed to worship; after a long abandonment, in 1890 it was entirely demolished to make way for a military battery.
