Comune Roccaforte Ligure

piazza Fratelli Bisio, 1 - 15060 Roccaforte Ligure (AL)
Tel. +39 (0143) 941.62
Fax: +39 (0143) 942.95
E-mail: roccaforteligure@gmail.com
https://www.comune.roccaforteligure.al.it/it-it/home

Roccaforte Ligure is a charming village situated in the province of Alessandria, Piedmont, immersed in the heart of Oltregiogo. Its name derives from its strategic position, which made it a "stronghold" in the Middle Ages.
The land belonged to the Monastery of Vendersi in the Early Middle Ages and was ruled by the Bishops of Tortona and then by the Malaspina family. Mentioned as Rocca di Pié, it passed to the Lords of Montalto and then under the direct rule of the municipality of Tortona from 1295. In the early 15th century it became the fief of the powerful Genoese Spinola family. Elevated to the rank of Marquisate in 1644, it had the power to mint money. Once the Imperial Fiefs were abolished in 1797, it suffered destruction at the hands of the Napoleonic army, namely the burning of the Marquisate archive with the purpose of eliminating the documents attesting to the old ownership. Incorporated in the division of Genoa and in the Province of Novi in Liguria, in the Kingdom of Sardinia, with the Rattazzi Reform it was joined to the province of Alessandria in 1859. In 1862, the adjective Ligure was added. In 1968, it ceded the hamlets of Cà di Lemmi and Lemmi to the municipality of Grondona.
Known since Medieval times for the trading activity of its inhabitants, Avi is a place of the Resistance, having hosted the first Partisan settlement of the Valley, under the command of Franco Anselmi "Marco".

Avi is now a "ghost" village surrounded by vegetation and silence. The village was inhabited until the early 1950s and in the first half of the twentieth century it was inhabited by close to twenty people. They were farmers, who lived by growing wheat in dedicated terraces which they had created above the village and by collecting chestnuts in the surrounding villages. They had studied specific rainwater collection and storage systems, to avoid continuous and difficult descents to the valley bottom, where the Rio Avi flows.
Malaspina Castle (or Spinola Castle)
Situated on a rocky spur, the castle offers a panoramic view of the surrounding valleys. Today, only the remains are visible, but a short walk from the center of the village allows to reach the top and admire the landscape.
The Church of San Giorgio (built in 1665, probably by the marquis Napoleon 4th Spinola) rises on a small hill outside the center of Roccaforte. From the church square, covered by thick grass, a vast and unforgettable view opens up Westwards and reaches as far as the Alps on a clear day.
The parish church of San Martino is located in the homonymous hamlet of Roccaforte, close to the crossroads in the elevated area.
The Oratorio of SS. Trinità is alongside the parish church, outside the center
of Roccaforte. The Church has a single nave layout, with small curved apse area. The nave features a barrel vault. The tiered facade faces onto the grassy square. A cornice divides the facade into two sections. The lower section hosts the entrance portal, topped by a single-light window.