The castle of Andora was raised in 1170 on a hill then called Paraxu, and for centuries that hill was Andora: the first settlement stood here, two kilometres from the coast, not on the beach. Today it is a ruin among the scrub, the remains of the walls and defensive towers made safe by a conservative restoration; together with the Romanesque church of Saints James and Philip beside it, it is regarded as the most important monumental site of western Liguria.
What to see
The hill stands alone, on the left side of the valley of the Mèrula stream. Of the thirteenth-century enclosure there remain sections of curtain wall and the bases of the towers, scattered among the bushes; the church of Saints James and Philip, by contrast, is intact, and it is the reason the site kept being used once the castle served no purpose. The two buildings have to be read together: they were a single organism, the centre of power and worship for the community before it moved down to the sea.
The history can be read in the changes of ownership. In the twelfth century the castle was the stronghold and residence of the marquises of Clavesana, who sold it in 1252 to the Republic of Genoa; the Genoese rebuilt and enlarged it, turning it into the house of the local podestà. Then the mouth of the Mèrula silted into marsh, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the inhabitants left for the nearby villages and above all for Laigueglia, and in 1676 the podestà moved there too, on account of the unhealthy conditions of the Paraxo. Even so, the castle kept full administrative functions until the French Revolution.
Visiting
The site lies in the hamlet of Castello, about two kilometres above the town of Andora; you get there by car climbing from the valley floor, or on foot from the village with an uphill walk. Anyone driving the A10 Genoa-Ventimiglia motorway has already seen it without knowing: the outline is clearly recognisable from the viaduct over the Mèrula. The area is in the open and you can walk freely around the ruins, while the church opens on a calendar worth checking before you go up.
Our editors' tip
We suggest climbing up in the late afternoon, when the light strikes the stone of the church at an angle and the valley below empties of traffic. Wear closed shoes: among the ruins the ground is uneven and the grass is high. And take the time to walk around the walls to the side facing the sea: from there you understand why for five centuries it seemed reasonable to live up here rather than on the shore.