Cervara Abbey
In the Middle Ages this site, as the whole stretch of coastline on the Gulf of Tigullio down to the sea to Portofino, was called Silvaria (silvae from the Latin word meaning "woods"), because of its native woodlands.
The monastery building was built in 1361 by Ottone Lanfranco, a priest at the church of Santo Stefano in Genoa, on land owned by the Carthusian monks.
The monastery became a center for the spread of Flemish artistic influence in Liguria, with works such as the Cervara Polyptych (1506), by Gerard David, and an Adoration of the Magi triptych by Pieter Coecke van Aelst.
Four panels are now in the gallery of Palazzo Bianco in Genoa, while the other three are in Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
The columns separating the three naves appear to be built with blocks alternating slate and marble, in the typical architectural style of Liguria, are actually two colors of brick covered with plaster.
During the recent restoration work was discovered a burial which in all probability is the archbishop of Genoa Guido Scetten, poet and scholar, fellow student and friend of Petrarch.
It was built in the 16th century to defend against raids by Saracen pirates, and despite his sighting function has the distinction of being set back from the monastery, it is considered a sign of respect and subordination to the sacredness of it.
Columns of the upper garden are completely covered with fragrant star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), Bougainvillea, rare pink capers, Bignonia, grapes, pepper trees (Schinus sp.
On the side facing the mountain, it has been kept a traditional vegetable garden where the monks since the Middle Ages grew the "simple" (plant varieties with medicinal virtues), medicinal plants and herbs of the promontory of Portofino, low box hedges and particles alternating crops such rare species of citrus in terracotta pots, as was customary in monasteries.
A plaque, commemorating the forced stay, has the words he wrote to his mother Louise of Savoy, on the night of the disastrous 1525 Battle of Pavia against the army of Emperor Charles V — "All is lost, except honor."
The prestige of San Girolamo della Cervara Abbey and its outstanding location, made it a preferred destination for the passage of illustrious personages, whose visits are written in the pages of local journals.
They include: Petrarch (the poet Francesco Petrarca), Saint Catherine of Siena on the way back to Avignon, Pope Gregory XI (1376), the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian of Austria, Don John of Austria who defeated the Turks at the battle of Lepanto (1571), the writer Alessandro Piccolomini, and Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor the wireless telegraph.
More recently, weddings of the famous include: the singer Rod Stewart with Penny Lancaster; the English national football player Wayne Rooney (at the time Manchester United F.C.
