Abbazia della Cervara
Cervara Abbey was built in 1361 on the idea of Otto Lanfranco, chaplain monk of St. Stephan's Abbey in Genoa, and in a few years the monastery was erected and dedicated to St. Jerome. Subsequently, Cervara passed to the Benedictine monks of Cassino (1420). The structure became the parent of an autonomous Cassinese Order, incorporating the convent of the St. Fruttuoso's Abbey of Capodimonte. Symbol of the spread of Flemish culture in Liguria, the convent houses the David's Altairpiece and the sixteenth-century triptych with the Magi's Adoration (now at Bianco palace, Genoa) by Pieter van Aelst Coecke. The monastery was elected as Abbey in 1546, further strengthening the structure because of the violent raids of the pirates Saracens, with new cloisters and bell tower. In the late eighteenth century, following the suppression of religious orders by Napoleon Bonaparte, the building was abandoned and looted. The entire complex was purchased by the Marquis Filippo Giacomo Durazzo and three years later (1871) sold to the Somaschi Fathers. In 1912, it was named "Italian National Monument". The abbey, now privately owned, is open to the public for cultural performances or concerts, or it can be visited in small groups by appointment.
