In the seventeenth century whoever held Cengio held a stretch of the road between Milan and Madrid. Had the French and Piedmontese taken it, they could have cut the link along the valley of the Bormida di Spigno: which is why from 1638 the Spanish paid for modern fortifications here, funded by duties levied in the Finale area. In 1648 the village was devastated and the castle destroyed.
This is the upper Val Bormida, on the Ligurian Apennines just above the Cadibona pass; the name is said to come from the rocky terraces known here as cenge. In the chapel of San Rocco at Brignoletta the statue of the saint has its wound on the right leg instead of the left. The population is 3,678.
Pesto alla Genovese
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Next up: Saint Catherine of Siena, patron of a town of three districts and three churches, Thursday 29 April
Nearest airport: Genova, 51 km away
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📅 Every year, on 29 April
Cengio celebrates Saint Catherine of Siena on 29 April; the town is divided into several districts, each with its own church, including one of Saints Barbara and John the Baptist, born from the conversion of an industrial building of the SIPE plant.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
