In the oratory of Conscente there was a Caravaggio. The banker Ottavio Costa had wanted it, and for the parish church of the same hamlet he also had Guido Reni paint, in 1606, a Beheading of Saint Catherine; the Saint John the Baptist was later replaced by a copy and taken to the museum in Albenga.
The village itself was built by Albenga: having bought the land in 1274 it made it over as a fortified town, square in plan with towers at the corners, just as it had done at Villanova. Along the road to the city stands the so-called Saracen tower, which is not Saracen at all: it is the remains of a Roman funerary monument of the second century. The population is 1,964.
chiesa di San Calogero · Castello di Conscente
Pesto alla Genovese
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Next up: Saint Mary Magdalene, patroness of a town with a painting commissioned from Guido Reni, Thursday 22 July
Nearest airport: Genova, 66 km away
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📅 Every year, on 22 July
Cisano sul Neva celebrates Saint Mary Magdalene on 22 July; in the hamlet of Conscente the banker Ottavio Costa commissioned the painter Guido Reni to paint the Beheading of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, dated 1606 and now kept in the diocesan museum of Albenga.
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 Cisano sul Neva, but an easy day trip away.
