San Terenzo
San Terenzo is an Italian village in the Ligurian province of La Spezia and is also a district ( Frazione ) in the municipality ( Comune ) of Lerici.
Location
San Terenzo is located 1 km from Lerici. You can reach the place from the state road SP 331 from either the 5 km away from La Spezia or Sarzana. The town itself is on the seafront and has a small port. To the west of the site is bordered by a medieval castle. Before the waterfront is a small sandy beach.
Origin of the name
San Terenzo received its present name in the Middle Ages. The oldest document that refers to the place as Santo Terence, dates from 6 March 1218. Legendary patron is a wealthy pilgrims from late antiquity, which, coming from Scotland came after a shipwreck here on the coast. He endowed the inhabitants with plenty of material and spiritual goods and to finally have become Bishop of Luni. He then continued his journey to Rome, but was attacked and killed by bandits. His body was in San Terenzo ai Monti, a place in the nearby province of Massa- Carrara, buried. The exact chronology of these events is, however, not been established.
History
The history of San Terenzo dates back to antiquity. In Roman times it was known as Portus Dei, later Portiolo, which can be interpreted as etymologically olive harbor. In the Middle Ages the town was an important meeting place for pilgrims and reached great importance due to a hospital, which had its headquarters here. The castle also dates back to the Middle Ages, which built the residents as a defense against pirate attacks on a cliff overlooking the sea. The church of Santa Maria Vergine was built in 1600 on the foundations of an ancient building situated in the center of the town.
Between 1809 and 1819 San Terenzo headquarters during the Napoleonic era. 1822 lived Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley at the Villa Magni. There, held in the summer of 1822 Lord Byron to visit. On July 8, 1822 Shelley came on the return trip from Livorno with his sailboat in a storm and drowned. Byron shook the corpse on the beach of Viareggio burn where the body had been washed ashore. The popularity of Shelley and Byron led to the designation Gulf of Poets ( Gulf of Poets ) for the Gulf of La Spezia and attracted tourists and writers. In the following decades other celebrities came to San Terenzo, including Arnold Böcklin, Paolo Mantegazza, David Herbert Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Gabriele D' Annunzio.
Traditions
Water sports enthusiasts from San Terenzo take every year on the first Sunday in August at the Palio del Golfo in part, a rowing competition in the Gulf of La Spezia, in which the teams of La Spezia, Lerici, Porto Venere, Tellaro, Canaletto, Le Grazie, Fezzano, Cadimare, Marola, Fossamastra, Muggiano and Venere Azzurra are represented. The Palio is part of the Festa del Mare, a boat show of the neighboring communities.