“Burgum Finarii”
Village of Finale. Short historical outlines.
The stretch of the ligurian coast that from Capo Noli reaches the offshoots of the Caprazoppa and its internal part had intense life since prehistory, as witnessed by the rests discovered in the numerous caves of this territory, the more important of which – of world-wide reputation – are the Sincere Arenas and the Pollera.
The life of the local populations belonging to the stock of the “Ligures” is organized -already towards a thousand year before Christ- also outside the caves, in villages in the open air and the conquest of this part of territory by the Romans – with the consequent long peace deriving from it – marks the passage from the primitive organizational system of the local people to a most developed stage: villages gather in rural communities called “pagi”, constituted of a homogenous group of inhabitants that have in common interests of defense, of commerce, of civil development, of administration and so on.
One of these “pagi” is settled in the locality “ad Fines” where the valley of the Pora ends up and where, when the populations were converted to Christianity, the “pieve” settles and adds the religious functions to the ones already carried out by the “pago”. The pieve “ad Fines” gains the name of “plebes Finarii”. The medieval age brings to the people local hard conditions of life; they experience the occupation by the Byzantine dominion, the hordes of the Visigoth, those of the Longobardi and finally the Frank and they have no other choice except leaving the coast and taking refuge in those caves or on the better defended heights in the internal part.
The entrances of the barbarians of the North – mitigated during the government of the Frank – are inserted from the raids of the Saracen along the beaches and the fatal, reiterated landings of these hordes of murderers, pillagers and slavers impose the inhabitants to take refuge even more in the internal part or to crowd in those caves that can offer a secure shelter.
The territory of Finale becomes finally dominion of the Aleramici; the Finale name in fact appears already in on the 23 rd of March 967 in the diploma with which the emperor of the Sacred Roman Empire and King of Italy Ottone I constitutes the Aleramic mark. In 1091 it becomes possession of Boniface of the Immense, descendant of Aleramo; since the division of the inheritance of Boniface in 1142, the son Henry I, called the “Guercio”, and progenitor of the mark of Del Carretto, obtains the marquisate of Savona that covers approximately the territory of the diocese of Savona.
Confirmation of such possession is given by the emperor Federico I of Svevia through the diploma of investiture on the 10 th of June 1162. Around 1185 it is checked the dismantling of the feudal order of the mark Savonese because of the progressive acquisition of the communal powers from the Communes of Savona and Noli and of the consequent limitation of the feudal powers. Henry I, said the “Cross-eyed”, moves to Finale, shelter and last feudal bulwark of the marquises of Savona, taking residence, it seems, in its possession called “Vignadonne” at the boundary of the “Plebes Finarii”. The Del Carretto become “Signori” of Finale and preserve the title of marquises of Savona after the loss of the town too. The son of the “Guercio”; Enrico II, inherits the territory of Finale from the father, the territories that gravitate around Millesimo and other possessions in Piedmont.
And it is Henry II who gives life, towards 1190 approximately, to the new Village Finarii, at the foots of the rocky spur of the Bechignolo, where the fortress of Castle Gavone will rise. The chosen territory for the birth of the Village has the quality of being the meeting point of valleys and roads, of finding itself near the sea, of whose earthly access it has the control and of constituting therefore a strategic point of leading importance, furthermore, of finding itself in the alluvional plain developed from the convergence of the torrents Pora and Aquila, torrents that, for the natural defense they can offer to the village, strengthen the importance of the strategic position in line with the medieval war systems. The built-up area is developed without a precise and moderate planimetry, on some parallel and orthogonal roads, within the walls, that determine and influence the building development.
The intent of the Marquis is certainly to form and constitute a true and actual capital of the small feudal state that refers to him, so as to make it become an important center in that turbulent and stormy historic period. As capital the Village is preferred to other localities belonging to the Marquisate for obvious features that the Village has of being situated on itineraries or long valleys that protect it in the internal part and on the coast; reference can be made to Varigotti, to Pia, to Perti, to Monticello, to Orco. Not painless it is the birth of the Village, because the Genoa advance right of jurisdiction on the sea and on the coasts and oppose with stubbornness the feudal overlord of Finale who appeals, together with other ligurian feudatory, to the emperor Federico II, which, on the 17th of July 1226, confirms to Henry II the investitures of the stronghold and of how much reconciled to his predecessors.
Remarkable are the following political events, military, territorial, economic and social vicissitudes the Village endures in the period in which it is tight to the family of Del Carretto, whose fates reflect indissolubly on the vicissitudes of the population and of its lifestyle on the territory.
To the main events of the period of subjection of the Village to Del Carretto and to the feature of their government, we dedicate these little, summary notes: the struggles sustained by Del Carretto, in the passing of some centuries, have like sole common denominator the effort not to fall under the influence and the yoke of the powerful Republic of Genoa that always tried to monopolize the life of the entire Liguria especially of the territories that face on the ligurian coast.
Naturally Genoa puts in work all the ways in order to take possession of this small stronghold too to be able to monitor the commercial deals with the potentates of high Italy and Europe. As the times go by, the Del Carretto, even if opposing the most brave resistance to Genoa, had to sign with it different trade agreements with which they recognized to Genoa the monopoly of the commerce of the salt, agreements that the Del Carretto have frequently eluded, because of the exorbitance of the demanded clauses too.
Nevertheless the incursions and the wars of the Genoese against Finale are frequent (fed also by the guelf-ghibellines struggles and by the rivalry between the Genoese families of the Fregoso and of the Adorno, the last allied and supporter of the Del Carretto), and flowed in a first war, concluded with the destruction and the burial of the port of Varigotti in 1341 and with the defensive construction of Castelfranco during 1363-65.
A second war in 1437 is concluded with the peace, while a third war in 1447 finishes with the capitulation of Castle Gavone , the plunder of the Village, the destruction of its wall and the temporary occupation of all of the territories belonging to the Del Carretto. At the end of 1450, John I Del Carretto succeeds in conquering again Finale, it is said in one single night, and after having concluded a peace with Genoa, the following year he can celebrate in the day dedicated to Saint Catherine the complete rebuilding of the walls around the Village.
We owe to this reconstruction the fact that we are able to see today the drawing of the same urban plan of the Village at the time it was planned. It is not known with precision what the Village was like before the radical destruction by the genoese after the war of 1447, not even if the wall of the primitive Village run on the same plan of the present walls; the sole certain thing is that the plant of the town goes on following, like before, the necessity of the defense, within the perimeter marked by the walls.
The descendants of John I succeed, among alternate political fortunes and popular revolts, punctually stirred up by Genoa, in supporting the fate of the marquisate until the 16th of May 1598: on that date Sforza Andrea Del Carretto, after a long time, and after complicated and difficult negotiations, transferred all his rights over the feud to the king of Spain Philip II with a contract signed in Milan.
We have now to reserve a hint also to the story of the Village in the period that follows the renunciation of Del Carretto of the feud of Finale that involves the passage of the territory under the Spanish domination. It is necessary immediately to specify that the Village participates, together with Finalmarina and with all Finale, to the advantages of an important economical development that the Spanish government imparted all of the territory, in connection above all with the fact that Finale had became a fundamental ‘trait d'union' of the Spanish dominion in Italy: in fact the Village becomes centre of the governor power with a strong and stable military fortified palace in defense of the intense deals with the valley of the Po.
The benefits that the Village gained can be still today tangibly pointed out from the numerous remakes, happened in this period, of the fifteenth-century palaces, built at the times of the reconstruction of the Village, under the guide of Del Carretto. The palaces and the building urban that we can see today are the fruit of modernization brought during the Spanish domination and still represent a faithful painting of the Village of the seventeenth century; rare are the ruins of the centuries XV and XVI.
The beneficial effects of the Spanish domination on Finale can be perceived until the conclusion of the Spanish war of succession. After the treaty of Utrecht of 1713 and the peace of Rastadt of 1714, Finale becomes a genoese dominion, that installs its governors; from this moment on the war breaks out between Genoa, the descendants of Del Carretto of the line of Balestrino and the kings of Sardinia, that introduce themselves in the conflict to acquire the territories of Finale like outfall on the sea.
The conflict is concluded in favor of Genoa in a definitive manner only after the peace of Aquisgrana of 1748. In 1797, when the Republic of Genoa is dissolved by the military Napoleonic enterprise, Finale becomes part of the newly constituted Department of Montenotte and the three districts (Village, Navy and Pia) are reunified under a sole administration.
After the fall of the Napoleonic empire and the Restoration, all returns ante quo and Finale follows the political destiny of the Kingdom of Sardinia first and of the Kingdom of Italy then. Finale Village, in the leading role of capital of the first marquisate first and of centre of the governor power then, has always enjoyed a status of economic and political fulcrum of the highest order, that favored, like it's still today observed, the construction of buildings with valuable architectural structures and the artistic accomplishment of works of rare beauty. The today's attentive observer who wanders for the roads of Finale Village can still admire the numerous and important splendors of the past (first of all the ancient basilica and collegiate church of Saint Biagio) and to realize the cultural richness achieved by the local population that lived before us in this sole and unrepeatable Burgum Finarii.
The invitation that the writer feels like addressing to our contemporaries, conscious or not of their administrative responsibility, is to be capable to accompany the satisfying feeling of pride for the cultural and spiritual property inherited from our ancestors, with the duty and the burden to convey to our posterity, in the most possible whole manner, such a splendid heritage.
Extract from "Memories and images on the roads of Finale Village, a pretext to describe our Village and its Public Assistance.
All the rights are reserved according to the Law. No part of this study can be published, reproduced or transmitted in every possible shape, without the written authorization of the editor of the study Giuseppe Berta.
