Castelnuovo Magra – 190 mslm

The village, recognizable from afar thanks to the Tower of the Bishop’s Palace and the bell tower of the church of Santa Maria Maddalena, stands at 188 m and dominates the landscape from the top of the hill with a splendid view of the sea, now not further away. 

The oldest nucleus has a concentric structure, a sign that the original hamlet was to gather around a defensive building that no longer exists, probably built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the central Via Dante (so called in memory of the great poet who stayed there) the splendid portals in sandstone and marble of various noble palaces overlook. Leaving the parvis of the parish church of S. Maria Maddalena on the right, a vaulted walkway leads to the square where the eighteenth-century Palazzo Amati is located, owned by the Municipality and home to the Regional Enoteca of Liguria.

The so-called “Palazzo Vescovile” was a stately home built in the second half of the 11th century by the will of Bishop Enrico da Fucecchio. It then became a military fortress after various renovations that took place during the Florentine and Genoese domination, in the 15th and 16th centuries. Of the imposing original structure, the large crenelated tower remains, with the crowning of sandstone corbels resulting from the refined Florentine restructuring of 1468, and the smaller circular tower equipped with brick corbels instead. The tower, completely restored and open to the public, is now home to exhibitions and events.