Country church on the road to San Romolo

The rural church of San Giacomo, situated along the ancient mule track leading to San Romolo, has been documented since a time before the first half of the seventeenth century, when the building, located in a wooded area at about two and a half miles from the city, it served as a place of worship for the inhabitants of the surrounding area. It seems probable that in this place there was once a very old religious building, which can be dated back to a little later period at the Bauma in San Romolo.

In the ancient church dedicated to St. James the Apostle, which in its simple and austere lines was vaguely reminiscent of that of St. Donato in Verezzo, began to reside regularly, starting from 1719, an chaplain who celebrated sacred functions there on feast days and preached Christian doctrine. In 1839 the church was renovated for the first time and in 1955 it was built as a parish.


Inside there are several works of art, among which a painting depicting the Ascension, made in western Liguria during the XVIII century and placed on the left side of the nave; the painting St. James arrested, also by an unknown eighteenth-century artist from Ponente and placed on the right side of the nave; the canvas Chiamata di Giacono e Giovanni, painted in western Liguria in the eighteenth century and located on the left side of the nave central; the painting Martyrdom of St. James, by an anonymous painter from western Liguria of the eighteenth century, placed on the left side of the central nave; and the large altarpiece depicting the Madonna and Child Jesus with Saints, realized in the west of Liguria in the second half of the 18th century and placed on the back wall of the presbyterial area behind the high altar, in which the Virgin Mary is portrayed, among others, entrusting the city to the protection of St. Romulus.

Some restoration and renovation works have recently been completed on the building, which have further enhanced its artistic and architectural qualities.

(source text: Andrea Gandolfo; photo: personal and Group archives)