The patron saint of Monterosso al Mare is Saint John the Baptist, celebrated on 24 June in the parish church dedicated to him, in the old town centre, facing a medieval tower that was part of the town's defensive system along with the castle, with its elongated walls fitted with three cylindrical towers, and the Aurora tower, perched over the sea.
On the side of the church an inscription still today records the water level reached during the floods of 1966 and 2011, when more than two metres of water and mud invaded the church, the sacristy and the rectory, in one of the most serious natural disasters in Liguria's recent history. Monterosso is the westernmost and most populous of the five villages that give the Cinque Terre their name, protected by the national park of the same name and by the marine protected area, as well as being listed, together with Portovenere and the islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto, on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In the hamlet of Fegina, where the railway station stands, are the town's most extensive beaches, far broader than the narrow cliffs that characterise the other villages of the Cinque Terre.
