Description of the attraction
The Cathedral of San Maurizio is a beautiful neoclassical church in the Ligurian town of Imperia, located in the Porto Maurizio quarter. It was designed by the Lugano-based architect Gaetano Cantoni from 1781 to 1838. Today, this magnificent church, standing on the top of the fortified Cape Parasio, is considered the largest religious building in all of Liguria: its sides are 70 and 42 meters (82 meters long with a frontal staircase), and the total area is about three thousand square meters. …
San Maurizio was built on the former Piazza D'Armi on the site of an old Romanesque cathedral that had fallen into disrepair. The architect was faced with the task of making the cathedral a symbol of the prosperity and greatness of the maritime Republic of Genoa. However, work on its construction was interrupted by the outbreak of the French Revolution. In 1947, San Maurizio received the status of a minor basilica, and today it is the cathedra of the bishops of Albenga and the Empire.
On both sides of the church there are twin bell towers about 36 meters high, however, only in the right campanile there is a bell. The facade of the church is decorated with eight columns - Doric (lower loggia), Ionic (pediment and half-columns of the central part of the bell towers) and Corinthian. The apse faces east and is "immersed" in a rectangular structure that houses the sacristy, living quarters for the clergy and other service premises.
Inside, the cathedral is divided into a central nave and two side chapels and is crowned with a marvelous dome with coffered vaults, on which a round lantern can still be seen at a height of 48 meters. The main dome is preceded by a smaller one without a lantern. There are six other small domes in the side aisles. The interior of San Maurizio is decorated with stucco moldings imitating white marble and Corinthian columns (there are almost a hundred of them!) - it resembles the basilicas of ancient Rome. The floor is marbled with geometric patterns. Among the works of art kept in the cathedral, one can distinguish the statue of St. Mauritius by Carlo Finelli, the statue of the Madonna della Misericordia from the 17th century, and the crucifix by Anton Maria Maragliano, statues of the four Evangelists, paintings by Francesco Coghetti, Domenico Piola, Cesare Viazzi and Francesco Podesti … The 17th century preacher's pulpit, made of colored marble in the Baroque style, has survived from an old Romanesque cathedral.
