The Torrione was built between 1563 and 1564 to see the pirates coming. It was no use: on the night between 1 and 2 July 1637 the men of the Algerian Ciribì landed all the same and put the town to fire and sword, church included.
There are two roads to the name. One leads to two Roman consuls called Cerialis; the other to Ceres, goddess of agriculture, to whom a temple is said to have stood here, and to the Cerialia festival, which fits a cereal market that flourished here. A settlement along the via Julia Augusta certainly existed. There are 5,815 residents.
Torrione di Ceriale
Pesto alla Genovese
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Next up: Saint Roch, patron of a town devastated by Ciribì's pirates in 1637, Monday 16 August
Nearest airport: Genova, 60 km away
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📅 Every year, on 16 August
Ceriale celebrates Saint Roch on 16 August; on the night between 1 and 2 July 1637 pirates under the Algerian Ciribì set the town ablaze, destroying the original church of Saints John the Baptist and Eugene and kidnapping about three hundred inhabitants, later ransomed by the redemption confraternities.
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.
Outside Ceriale, but an easy day trip away.
