Apricale - Italy

Apricale (IM)

Liguria (Italy)

Apricale (Latin apricus, exposed to noon) is a medieval village in the valley Nervia, where the maquis alternates with chestnut and fir.
Founded around 1000, began autonomous statutes (the oldest in Liguria) in 1267, after being under the dominion of the Counts of Ventimiglia before ending the influence of the Doria.
In a necropolis of Pian del Re (not open) shows that the area was inhabited since the Bronze Age.
The age-old castle is now a private residence, while the walls only ruins remain, and three doors.
Made of alleys and stairways, shops and houses piled up, the old town is enhanced by murals painted each year by the many artists involved in the day of the fresco.
The Parish Church of the Purification of Mary was rebuilt in the nineteenth century but it is late medieval, and the bell tower is a thirteenth century tower, form an elegant setting with the ancient buildings of Piazza Cavour and the oratory of St. Bartholomew, where he kept a polyptych 1544.
Next to the cemetery stands the thirteenth-century church of St. Anthony with a baroque facade and frescoes.
The church of Santa Maria in Sunrise with precious frescoes by Cambiaso, while others performed between the fifteenth and the nineteenth century, adorn the church of Our Lady of the Angels, the country's entry.
Secular tradition of the famous pottery school.
Apricale summer comes to life: in addition to the outdoor theater festival, the square hosts the tournament elastic ball and September as the festival dedicated to pansarole, the typical sweet.
Among the local produce stand Rossese doc and olive oil.
Walkers can alternate and scenic routes for Isolabona Bayard Semoigo excursions to the mountains (609 m) and Bignone (1299 m); deserve walk and visit the ruins of the Romanesque church of St. Peter in Ento.