Above the entrance portal is a stone plaque that the Genoese Offizio di San Giorgio had set there in 1555, once the work was finished: the last signature on a building that carries many. Lerici castle began in 1152, when Genoa bought the headland from the lords of Arcola and completed its grip on both shores of the gulf, having already taken Portovenere on the far side. Pisa seized it after the naval battle of Giglio in 1241 and held it for fifteen years; the deed of surrender and perpetual handover to Genoa is dated 29 October 1256. Then came the Aragonese in 1426, the revolt with which the people of Lerici freed themselves in 1473, the Medici of Florence, and as late as 1814 a clash with a French detachment driven off by a British expeditionary force.
What to see
The pentagonal tower is 29 metres high and turns its sharp angle towards the town: instead of one defensive front it offers two, and no blind spot is left below the walls. The two-tone bands of white and grey marble and the four tiers of projecting arches are the mark of Genoese builders. There are in fact three towers, one inside the other: the oldest core, the casing added by the Pisans, and the outer shell with which Genoa closed everything in.
The chapel of Santa Anastasia is the biggest surprise: Gothic, with well-preserved cross vaults and the black stone and white marble decoration typical of thirteenth-century Liguria. The rectangular room is divided by a broad arch, the floor rises in steps towards the altar, light and dark bands run along the walls, and Saint George appears on the keystone of the vault. An inscription records that Genoa took Lerici back by fighting, and says so in the first person, as if the fortress itself were speaking.
Visiting
You walk up from the old town through lanes and flights of steps: the castle sits on the poggio, the natural terrace at the top of the small headland that drops straight to the sea, and the climb is short but steep, with no shade in the middle of the day. Since 1998 the rooms have housed a geopalaeontological museum, part of the Pangea network. Opening times change with the season and with the events held in the courtyards, so it is worth checking before you set off, especially outside summer.
Our editors' tip
We go up in the late afternoon and stop on the wall-walks before going into the museum. From there the whole gulf can be read in one piece, as far as Portovenere on the opposite shore: the two points Genoa bought little more than a decade apart. In a single glance you understand why two maritime republics fought over a rock. The museum works well with children, but the wall-walk is still the best part.