Historic centre of Albenga, Medieval old town in Albenga, Italy
The Historic Centre of Albenga is a medieval old town in Liguria that still follows the street grid laid out in Roman times. Narrow lanes run between tightly packed buildings, and a series of towers built by medieval noble families rise above the rooftops across the area.
The town traces its origins to a Roman settlement called Albium Ingaunum, which served as a port and administrative centre along the Ligurian coast. Over the centuries the coastline shifted and the harbour silted up, leaving the town cut off from the sea and preserving its medieval layout largely unchanged.
The Cathedral of San Michele Arcangelo stands at the heart of the old town, surrounded by narrow lanes where small shops and workshops have been part of daily life for generations. The mix of religious buildings and lived-in streets gives the place a sense of continuity that is easy to notice as you walk through.
The centre is best explored on foot, as many of the lanes are closed to vehicles and the area is compact enough to cover without transport. The paving is uneven in places and some stretches can be slippery, so sturdy shoes make the visit much easier.
The early Christian baptistery next to the cathedral has ten sides on the outside and eight on the inside, a combination that is unusual even among baptisteries of that period. It also contains a mosaic from the 6th century, making it one of the very few surviving early Christian mosaics in northern Italy.
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