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Considered by many the most picturesque Cinque Terre, Vernazza is documented for the first time in 1080. The significant economic and social level reached by the village in the Middle Ages is still witnessed by the town planning and architectural elements of great value, such as lodges, churches, tower houses and porches. The village is dominated by the remains of the "castrum", a series of medieval fortifications dating from the eleventh century, with a castle and a cylindrical tower . The village is made up of houses separated by a single central street and perpendicular, steep stairways called "arpaie". The most important historical monument is St. Margaret of Antioch, a Romanesque-style church Genoese, whose construction dates back to the thirteenth century, and they have a recognizable body and one medieval renaissance. The hamlet, with its narrow streets magical and mysterious enclosed among multicolored houses, rose, red and yellow, now crowded with tourists from all over the world , is ranked among the top hundred most beautiful villages in Italy, boasts an 'old and long seafaring tradition, a glorious past of sailors and captains. In 1170 Vernazza alongside Genoa fought and won against the Pisans, and as a faithful ally of the Republic, in the middle of one thousand two hundred was involved in clashes with troops of Frederick II.
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Arriving by sea, the square of Vernazza comes to us with open arms. Landings , and the port where the Romans came to load the jars of Vernaccia, seems to close in on us for shelter from the sea winds and greet inside "u cantu de musse", the angle of the talk: yet so you call this clearing where, facing the Mediterranean, life can return to its real dimension, that of abandonment, of confidence. In this square there is a church that seems to defy the waves of the sea. Dedicated to S. Margaret of Antioch, was built in 1318 in Gothic-Ligurian. It has two special features: the tower, octagonal and 40 m high, more than a bell tower looks like a minaret (missing only the muezzin calling to prayer), the entrance is located in the apse instead of in front. The interior has a basilica plan with three naves and is suggestive of the use of slate, the local black stone. It has a splendid Gothic tabernacle (fifteenth century) by an unknown author, on the right side of the apse. Along with the church, framing the cylindrical Marina Towers tower of the ancient castle Doria, with square tower, is all that remains of the ancient Genoese fortifications in anti-pirate. For the rest, Vernazza, in addition to the typical terraced houses of the fishing villages, sprouted from each other in their defense, presents in the upper part of loggias, arcades, narrow and steep, covered by arches connected with stairs leading other scales. The narrow streets lit by the sun and the houses seem to crave water, lean and dive into it. From the square branching paths among the most beautiful of the Cinque Terre, in particular those leading to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Reggio, built in sec. XI, with its black Madonna that you want to reach by the Crusaders, and that of S. Bernardino, where you can enjoy a panorama that sweeps from Corsica to the Maritime Alps. In the village of Corniglia, accessible through a scenic trail, is to see the church of St. Peter (1334) aspect of Gothic Ligurian, with the baptismal font of the twelfth century and rose window in the facade with white Carrara marble. Around, vegetation, sky, sea and the clear happiness of the Riviera.