Overview
The Collegiate Basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of Oneglia, and its façade, above the main portal, bears a long plaque documenting its consecration in 1762. The serious damage caused by the 1887 earthquake has since been restored and renovated several times.
In front of the portals, the typical Ligurian mosaic technique made of black and white pebbles, called rissêu, arranged in geometric patterns or natural motifs, is striking. Inside the naves, the Baroque decoration with gilding and frescoes, and the play of light created by the colours of the stained-glass windows are clearly visible. As eighteenth-century as the church, the high altar is in polychrome marble and the wooden chancel.
Back outside, three walled cannonballs can be seen in the apse, a remnant of the French naval bombardment - only three years after the start of the Revolution, in October 1792. Until the fall of Napoleon, Oneglia would remain in the hands of France.
