Castello di San Giorgio, Medieval fortress in Lerici, Italy

Castello di San Giorgio is a polygonal fortress on the rocky Mons Illicis promontory above the Lerici inlet. Its main body is a tall cylindrical tower of pale grey-brown masonry with a flat top, from which a lower walled enclosure runs along the ridge; a small rounded turret projects where tower and walls meet. Inside, a vaulted chamber of rough grey and beige stone has pointed arches banded in darker stone, a dark wooden cross on the far wall and a stone altar below it.

Genoa bought Lerici from the Lords of Arcola in April 1152 and built the castle next to an existing tower; a 1152 feudal contract already mentions a tower and a keep. Pisa held the castle from 1241 to 1256, building around the tower, but after its surrender on 29 October 1256 Genoa demolished most Pisan work. The 1555 completion under the Genoese Office of San Giorgio gave the castle its present form, recorded on the entrance plaque.

The castle's name recalls San Giorgio, the Genoese Office that completed the works in 1555; a plaque on the entrance portal still records this. The village below grew beside the fortress, and the two share one history. Inside, the vaulted chamber holds a stone altar with a pale cloth and a dark wooden cross on the far wall.

The fortress sits on the highest point of the Mons Illicis promontory, reached on foot through the village lanes that climb from Lerici; the entrance portal carries the 1555 plaque commemorating the completion of works ordered by the Genoese Office of San Giorgio. The interior chamber with its pointed arches and stone altar is entered from the walled enclosure.

The 1555 completion of the castle, ordered by Genoa's Offizio di San Giorgio, is recorded on a plaque still set above the entrance portal. The first defensive structure on the Mons Illicis was a single tower, built by the Malaspina or by Genoa, with a mastio known only from the 1152 feudal contract with the Signori di Arcola.