The church was born with the town. At the end of the 13th century the Comune of Albenga founded a new settlement on the plain of the Varatella stream, the Burgus Sancti Spiritus, and on the very ground the parish church occupies today the first San Matteo went up, with its apse to the east and its front to the west. When the population outgrew it, the building was rebuilt larger in the 17th century: three naves, columns of Finale stone, vaulted roofing, a slate floor. Pier Francesco Costa, bishop of Albenga, consecrated it on 4 October 1643.
What to see
The four canvases by the Genoese painter Giuseppe Badaracco, painted between 1644 and 1655, are the reason to step inside: the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew in the apse, the Martyrdom of Saint Agatha in the chapel at the head of the right nave, the Miracle of the Mule and, along the left nave, the altarpiece with the Virgin and Child and Saints Peter, Erasmus and Anthony the Abbot. In this last one you can pick out Borghetto Santo Spirito as it looked in the 17th century. In the niches flanking the marble high altar of 1715 stand a Saint Matthew from the workshop of Anton Maria Maragliano and a Saint Mary Magdalene by Paolo Olivari; the wooden choir dates from the early 19th century, the work of Perasso, a craftsman from Loano.
The front is from 1902: Santiago Marexiano paid for it, Giovanni Richinotti designed it, and a cornice and four pilasters with Corinthian capitals set its rhythm. The three reliefs below are by Antonio Brilla of Savona: the Madonna della Guardia over the central door, Saint Joseph on the left and Saint Anne on the right. The six stained-glass windows, by contrast, date from 1950 and replaced those destroyed by bombing in the Second World War.
Visiting
The church stands on via Roma, in the centre of Borghetto Santo Spirito, and it is a working parish in the vicariate of Loano, diocese of Albenga-Imperia: the mass timetable sets the hours, and outside them access is not guaranteed. The frescoes of the central vault and the interior decoration were restored between 1991 and 1993, so they are in good condition. Anyone coming for the organ will find the instrument built in 1996 by Beniamino Giribaldi of Montegrazie: 1116 pipes, 25 stops, fully mechanical action.
Our editors' tip
Our advice is to get close to the altarpiece in the left nave and look for the outline of 17th-century Borghetto in the background: houses, towers and the line of the sea as Badaracco had them in front of him while he worked. Then step outside and compare that drawing with the street as it is now. It is the clearest way to measure how little of that old village survives, and how much the church, inside, has stayed the same.