An inscription by the church records the least likely episode in the Ligurian repertoire: a giant octopus that came up out of the sea, rang the bells of San Giorgio in the night and woke Tellaro in time to beat off a raid by Saracen pirates. The legend holds because the setting almost makes it credible. The church stands on the Treggiano point, a rock spur south-west of the village, and was built on the remains of a fourteenth-century Genoese fortification; for many years, part of the village defences, it served as a fortification itself. The apse and the bell tower face the water, while the façade opens onto a very narrow lane.
What to see
The present building is sixteenth-century and was consecrated on 1 May 1584 by the apostolic visitor Angelo Peruzzi. Immediately afterwards one of the towers of the Genoese fortified complex was converted into a bell tower, and that is still the one you see: a cylindrical tower carrying a square-plan belfry, pierced by round-arched windows, with four corner pinnacles, an octagonal drum and an onion-shaped cupola. In 1618 the church was enlarged with the sacristy, the arches that divide the nave and the vaults.
The façade, pressed against the lane, has two superimposed orders of pilasters, Tuscan below and Ionic above, joined by lateral volutes and closed by a triangular pediment; on the axis opens a mixtilinear portal in white Carrara marble with two cornucopia volutes and a relief of Saint George. Inside, three aisles divided by two octagonal columns of local black stone, a barrel vault in the centre and cross vaults at the sides, a hemispherical calotte over the presbytery, a floor of lozenges in white marble and Carrara bardiglio. The altars are Baroque and a sixteenth-century altarpiece survives, a marble bas-relief; the baptismal font and the statue of Saint George have been moved to the new parish church of Stella Maris. The choir loft holds an organ of 1846 by Nicomede Agati, an organ builder from Pistoia.
Visiting
Tellaro is a hamlet of Lerici, on the Gulf of La Spezia, and is covered on foot: cars stop at the edge of the built-up area, then you go down through lanes and steps to via San Giorgio and the point. The parish has moved to the new church of Stella Maris, so San Giorgio no longer has the daily life of a parish church and may well be locked: ask before you go. Even with the doors shut the walk around is worth the time, because the seaward side is the real front of the building.
Our editors' tip
Our advice is to look at the church from two opposite points: first from the lane, where the pilaster façade comes at you and cannot be framed; then from below, on the sea side, where apse and tower rise straight out of the rock and you understand that this was a strongpoint before it was a place of worship. Look for the inscription about the octopus as well: a village that has carried a story like that for centuries deserves to have it read on the spot.