The floor of the room to the right of the entrance is the oldest thing in Porto Venere: an opus sectile drawing circles, bands and stars in thin slabs of different marbles, some of them brought from far away. This is the small early Christian basilica of the 5th century, raised on the remains of a Roman temple probably dedicated to Venus Erycina, on the spur that drops sheer into the open sea. On 19 July 1118 Pope Gelasius II dedicated it to Saint Peter and left a relic of the apostle here; Eugenio Montale would later call it the Christian temple.
What to see
What you walk into is two churches sewn together. The first, early Christian, follows a Syriac plan: rectangular nave, semicircular apse, plain dark stone facing outside. Digs in the apse floor found the probable base of a statue, perhaps left from the pagan temple; a copy of the bronze Saint Peter of the Vatican basilica stands there now. The second is the Gothic church the Genoese built in the 13th century, probably between 1256 and 1270, over the area of the cloister of the Benedictine abbey that stood alongside: two arched openings connect the two spaces.
The Genoese half is striking for its horizontal black and white bands, inside and on the front, and for three aisles with ribbed cross vaults on compound piers; the bell tower rests on the left aisle and lightens towards the top with superimposed rows of mullioned windows. Little survives of the abbey, but the Romanesque loggia does, facing the sea and the Cinque Terre, four openings on columns that reuse Roman-era pieces, in all likelihood spoils from the temple of Venus. The present door, the silver and marble Porta del cielo, is from 1992 and is the work of Lello Scorzelli.
Visiting
The church stands at the end of calata Doria, at the tip of the village: a few minutes on foot from the centre, the last stretch uphill and on steps. Entry is free. It helps to know that what you see is the result of two centuries of ruin and one restoration: 1494 brought a fire and then the guns of the fleet of Charles VIII and of the Aragonese artillery; secular clergy served it until 1798, and in the Napoleonic wars troops bivouacked inside, stole the paintings, melted the bells and burned the roof beams. The excavations and restoration between 1929 and 1934 put the early Christian and medieval spaces back together; the reconsecration dates to October 1934.
Our editors' tip
Go in, then step straight out onto the loggia: that is where you understand why the church was set on this exact point. We like it with a rough sea, when the swell hits below the spur and the noise comes in through the arches. And look at the inlaid floor before you look out: afterwards, with the Cinque Terre in front of you, nobody remembers it.