Above the door of the small chapel built into the base sits a brick from the Holy Door in Rome, set there in memory of the holy year 1932. That detail explains better than anything else what the monumental cross of Monte Beigua is: not a sign stuck on a ridge, but an actual building in reinforced concrete, with a chapel in its base and a staircase in its shaft. It went up between that year and 1933, at 1267 metres, 700 metres west of the summit, in the municipality of Sassello.
What to see
The cross is 18.50 metres tall and nearly 7 metres from arm to arm: bell-tower proportions, not trail-marker ones. Inside, a staircase climbs into one of the arms, and from there, when the air is clear, the view reaches Corsica and takes in much of the north-western Alpine arc, with the two Rivieras and the Po plain below. The chapel in the base is tiny, carved out of the thickness of the structure.
A few steps away stands the Regina Pacis sanctuary, linked to the cross by a Via Crucis carved by Emilio Demetz and inaugurated in 1937. The stations follow the stretch of ridge between the two buildings: walking them in order, rather than heading straight for the cross, is the right way to read the whole, because that path was made precisely to join them.
Visiting
Monte Beigua reaches 1287 metres and lies inside the Parco naturale regionale del Beigua, recognised as a geopark. You can drive up the asphalt road from Alpicella, above Varazze, or from the Urbe side via Piampaludo and Prà Riondo; the Alta Via dei Monti Liguri crosses the summit, so many people arrive on foot. At the top are the RAI transmitters and a refuge-hotel with a restaurant, useful when the weather turns. The cross stands in the open and has no opening hours, while the chapel and the internal staircase are not always accessible: plan on seeing it from outside only.
Our editors' tip
We go up after a front has passed, when the north wind has scrubbed the air: it is the only condition in which the outline of Corsica really lifts off the horizon, and without that view the climb loses half its point. We suggest leaving the car at Prà Riondo and walking the last stretch along the ridge, sanctuary and Via Crucis first, the cross last. Closed shoes even in August: the grass up here stays wet until mid-morning, and the open ridge catches every gust that goes by.