The patroness of Portovenere is the Madonna Bianca, solemnly celebrated on 17 August. The date recalls the end of the plague epidemic, on 17 August 1399, and the name comes from an event that local tradition places in that same year.
In the evening the icon goes out in procession through the streets of the village, while the headland of Punta San Pietro is lit with Roman torches. The sanctuary of the Madonna Bianca is the old church of San Lorenzo, built by the Genoese in the 12th century in Romanesque style and later enlarged between 1494 and 1582, standing above the old town near the Doria castle; it also keeps the figureheads of the galleys of Portovenere.
