Lavagna
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Lavagna is a fishing port city of 13,000 inhabitants in the curving stretch of the Italian Riviera di Levante called the gulf of Tigullio, in the province of Genoa in Liguria. The borgo of Lavagna was an important Ligurian cultural center in the Middle Ages. Today its long straight beach is packed with August tourists.
The Fieschi, counts of Lavagna, held the fief of Lavagna from the Holy Roman Emperors from the 11th century; males of the Fieschi— all of them styled conte di Lavagna— played major roles as Guelf partisans in the governance and military history of medieval Genoa, ever in conflict with the Republic and always retaining their connection with their holdings here. In 1138, in an agreement between the Fieschi and the commune of Genoa, the Fieschi agreed to spend part of the year in the city. Sinibaldo de' Fieschi, count of Lavagna, became pope as Innocent IV in 1243, and his nephew Ottobuono was elected pope to succeed Innocent V on July 12, 1276, but died at Viterbo on August 18, without ever having been ordained to the priesthood, as Pope Adrian V. In the Fieschi conspiracy of 1547, Giovanni Luigi Fieschi and the nobles unsuccessfully attempted to recapture the dogate from Andrea Doria, and the power of the Fieschi was broken.
The Basilica dei Fieschi is that of San Salvatore di Cogorno. The city recreates neo-medieval festivities annually as the "Torta dei Fieschi", which has been recreating (since 1949) the festivities that surrounded the wedding of Opizzo Fiesco, conte di Lavagna, with the Sienese patrician Bianca dei Bianchi. A colorful cortege through the streets reunites the inhabitants of the six medieval quarters (sestieri) of Lavagna, as the gigantic cake is distributed among those in the crowd who have found the matching half of their tickets.
The characteristic shale that provides roofing "slates" in Liguria was traditionally quarried in the Capenardo and S. Giacomo mountains nearby.
- "Torta dei Fieschi" (in Italian)
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