{"id":1586,"date":"2026-09-26T06:56:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T04:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visitbordighera.com\/?post_type=luogo&p=1586"},"modified":"2026-10-30T22:49:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T21:49:52","slug":"church-of-sant-ampelio","status":"publish","type":"luogo","link":"https:\/\/visitbordighera.com\/en\/places\/church-of-sant-ampelio\/","title":{"rendered":"Church of Sant\u2019Ampelio"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the tip of Capo Sant\u2019Ampelio, the southernmost headland of Liguria, the Church of Sant\u2019Ampelio stands on the rocks like a sentry at the entrance to Bordighera. It is a small Romanesque church from the 11th century, built where, according to tradition, the hermit Ampelio lived: the town\u2019s patron saint, said to have brought the seeds of the first date palms here.<\/p>\n

The visit is short but special: all around there is nothing but the sea, and beneath the church you go down into the crypt, the oldest part, with its small windows open onto the water. Come at sunset or on a clear morning, then stop on the flat rocks of the Capo, where the locals sunbathe and swim.<\/p>\n

The history of the church of Sant\u2019Ampelio<\/h2>\n

According to tradition, Ampelio was an anchorite who arrived around 411 from the Thebaid, the desert of Upper Egypt where many hermits lived. He settled on this headland and lived in a cave among the rocks, in hermitage, penance, work and prayer: he is the patron saint of blacksmiths and fishermen. He died here on 5 October 428, and legend has it that he lay on the block of stone that served as his bed.<\/p>\n

The saint\u2019s relics are first mentioned in a document of the 10th-11th century, which also refers to the domus S. Ampelii<\/em>: evidently a first monastery built on the site of his hermitage. In the 11th century a Romanesque church was built on the site of the cave, under the powerful Benedictine abbey of Montmajour in Provence. In 1140 the Genoese took the saint\u2019s relics to Sanremo, and in 1258 to Genoa, to the monastery of Santo Stefano. They only returned to Bordighera on 16 August 1947, arriving by sea, thanks to the Archbishop of Genoa, Giuseppe Siri: today they are kept in the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena<\/a>, in Bordighera Alta<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The church on the Capo was partly demolished, rebuilt and enlarged several times, as the section below explains. In the last quarter of the 19th century, through the work of Father Giacomo Viale, it received its present fa\u00e7ade and bell tower. After the 2014-2015 restoration it reopened to the public on 24 May 2015. Today it is a national monument: one archaeologist described it as a palimpsest of ten centuries of history.<\/p>\n

The phases of the church<\/h2>\n

The 1964 restoration brought the earlier phases of the building back to light. Today the church reads like this:<\/p>\n