Campo Ligure, Italy: travel guide to the filigree village and Spinola castle in the Valle Stura

Campo Ligure is a small town in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, in Liguria, set at around 340 metres in the Valle Stura of the Ligurian Apennines, about 30 kilometres north-west of Genoa. Home to some 3,000 people and counted among the most beautiful villages of Italy, it is famous for its handsome medieval centre and for a centuries-old craft of fine metalwork.

For travellers searching for Campo Ligure, the Spinola castle, Italian filigree or the most beautiful villages of Italy, it offers history, artistry and mountain scenery close to the Riviera.

Castle and old town

The village is watched over by the Spinola Castle, a fortress with 12th-century walls and later towers, long the seat of the Spinola marquises who held Campo Ligure as an imperial fief; today it hosts concerts and cultural events. In the centre, the painted façade of the Palazzo Spinola overlooks the main square, near the parish church of the Nativity of the Virgin and the Baroque Oratory of Saints Sebastian and Roch, while a fine old stone bridge crosses the river Stura.

The capital of filigree

Campo Ligure is one of the great European centres for the working of gold and silver filigree, a delicate craft still practised in its workshops. The Filigree Museum gathers more than two hundred pieces from around the world, and a yearly exhibition in September celebrates the art. Local specialities include revzora, a flatbread of corn flour.

Practical information

Campo Ligure lies about 30 kilometres north-west of Genoa in the Valle Stura, reachable by road and by the railway up the valley, an easy escape inland from the Ligurian coast.