Also the Waldensians in Sanremo

The first attempts to create a Waldensian community in Sanremo date back to January 1868 when the young shepherd Paul Benemann, at the time leading the churches of Bordighera and Vallecrosia, held a series of meetings and cults opposite and a small but lively audience in a room of the Hotel Victoria. Although he managed to achieve good success, Benemann had to abandon that field of work to devote himself entirely to caring for his communities.

In 1876 the Evangelisation Committee of the Waldensian Church invited Pastor Antonio Bartolomeo Tron, at the time resident in Genoa, to visit Sanremo, Imperia and Oneglia periodically to hold numerous private cults in various families of evangelical faith.
The work carried out by Tron soon led to the birth of a real community which, although not yet possessing a place of worship, slowly began to grow in number and consolidate. Between 1878 and 1883 the community was entrusted to the care of the various shepherds living in Vallecrosia who undertook to visit the place at least once a week.

In 1882 the pastor David Peyrot managed to reach an important agreement with the Sanremo's German speaking evangelical community who decided to put their own chapel in Corso Garibaldi, officially inaugurated in January of that same year, free of charge.

The subsequent work of Enrico Matteo Malan (1883-1885) and Giovanni Rochat (1886-1888), both residing in Sanremo, benefited from the financial support of various foreign personalities, including the German Carolina Laura Heye (1830-1906), called sister Laura by the people of Sanremo, who, a fervent Christian and animated by an ecumenical spirit, once she arrived in the City of Flowers for health reasons, soon became an active and generous supporter of various local works and institutions. Thanks to her constant and continuous help, the Waldensian church of Sanremo grew in number and in 1887 she was able to rent a room in Via Gioberti which was abandoned after a few months. The community, after various researches, decided to move its worship room to the large building that housed the day school, located in via Umberto (today corso Mombello). The day school would continue to function until 1935 and had, among its students, Italo Calvino who attended it from 1929 to 1933.

The arrival of Giovanni Petraj in Sanremo during 1888 marked a change in a new period of prosperity, characterised by the strengthening of the various ecclesiastical activities and a renewed commitment to the schooling of the youngest.

In January 1901 Ugo Janni, at the time a priest of the national Catholic Church, asked to be welcomed into the Waldensian Church together with the whole old Catholic community of Sanremo. In April of that same year the Waldensian Table accepted the request and Janni, who was to become a full-fledged member of the pastoral body in 1902, became Giovanni Petrai's successor. As an exception to the Waldensian orders of the time, Janni remained pastor in Sanremo until 1938, the year of his death.
This particular condition was imposed by Laura Heye, benefactress of the Ligurian community, and accepted by the Waldensian Synod.

In the last months of 1903 Ugo Janni and Laura Heye concluded negotiations for the purchase of a large plot of land on the corner of Via Carli and Via Roma, where the Anglican church of San Giovanni Battista once stood but which was destroyed by a violent fire.


During the following year work began on the construction of the Waldensian House, new classrooms, rooms for youth activities, the shepherd's lodging, but also and above all the temple.

The building project was commissioned to the architect Giovenale Gastaldi who availed himself of the technical advice of engineer Liborio Coppola.

The temple was officially opened in November 1907 with the preaching of the famous shepherd Teofilo Gay, from the Waldensian valleys.
On that occasion the tombstone in memory of Laura Heye, who died the previous year, was also discovered.

The arrival of Giovanni Bonnet in 1939 represented a very important moment in the life of the church.

The shepherd periodically dealt with a vast diaspora including localities such as Loano, Alassio, Ceriana, Imperia, Albenga and Savona, trying at the same time to re-establish peace and harmony within the community of Sanremo, still strongly felt by the death of Janni.

At the beginning of 1943 the shepherd decided to temporarily leave his post due to a sharp deterioration of his health, being replaced by Neri Giampiccoli until June 1945.



Back in Sanremo, the shepherd took care of the reorganization and reconstruction of the buildings damaged by the war, including the temple, which was completely restored and later inaugurated on Palm Sunday in 1946.

From the post-war period to the present day, the Waldensian church in the city has experienced ups and downs, and today it continues its journey towards a future of evangelical testimony, not without - and despite - the difficulties of modern times.

(sources: text from the Waldensian Heritage Site in Liguria; private archive images)