VIVA - New Active Tourism Itineraries in Villanova

Located on the edge of the town, the church of Sant’Antonio still poses many questions. In the absence of documented evidence and on the basis of a formal analysis, it can be dated back to the thirteenth century. Taking the walls of the Doria castle as a reference point, the scholar Roberto Coroneo pointed out that the church was probably an extramural factory; a phase of installation reveals that the church was a single-aisled apsed structure created from medium-sized blocks of limestone. Just in the back are the large and robust corbels, which served as a base for the small arches laid on the extremity of the half-cylinder apse, of which we have no trace. In the portions of the building spared by plaster, which characterises the exterior elements of the church, it is possible to see the carefully squared blocks used for hardening the edges of the façade, which shows a pointed doorway surmounted by a circular oculus. At the top of the slopes is a belfry. The sides show splayed single-lancet windows similar to that found in the centre of the half-cylinder apse, which is still visible on the wall face.

The village of Monteleone Roccadoria, situated in the region of Nurcara, today presents only the remains of the old defensive work, the Castle of Monteleone, built by the Doria family of Genoa on an uninhabited hill by 1272. The present position of the town, situated on a tuffaceous hill called Su Monte, makes its function during the Middle Ages clear.

In the late 1990s, in the twentieth century, some archaeological excavations helped in highlighting an area traditionally known as the “Castle”, allowing a survey of the remaining structures, the excavation of two areas and a preliminary survey of the town. The medieval castrum, located in the southern part of the hill, included the Palatium of the Doria family with a series of rooms aimed to host the whole household. Towards the east, there was the village enclosed by towered walls. The coat of arms of the Doria family can still be seen incorporated into the walls of several houses.

In the absence of documented evidence, we still have doubts about the function played by the church of Sant’Antonio in ancient times, lost in the lack of sources. It can be interesting the finding of a footprint of the so-called “Pilgrim’s shoe” (a symbol that in the Middle Ages signalled the passage of a pilgrim), engraved in the jamb of the first of the two single-lancet windows of the northern side.