Old Tower

History VII sec. b.C., the Gulf was occupied from the Etruscan that found the city of Luni, to which for many centuries Lerici- port of arrival of Greek and Phoenician traffics-connects its history. Lerici will be then of the Ligurians and finally of the Romans, that made it an important military and commercial base. X sec. AD, Berengario confirmed to the bishop Adalberto all the already granted possessions to the Church of Luni, among which that of Barbazzano (ancient Roman installation) that will be to the origin of Tellaro. 1152, Lerici with its port started to belong to the Republic of Genoa, but it stayed contended by the inhabitants of Pisa. XIII sec., Barbazzano became commune and enjoyed the protection of Pisa, while Lerici sustained the fates of Genoa; in 1241 the port of Lerici is occupied by the pisans that built the castle and the new walled up suburb; in 1256 Lerici definitely returns to the Genoese, that widen the castle ; in 1280 Barbazzano was surrendered to Genoa, three years later it returned to the bishop of Luni but it became again possession of the Genoese in 1284, after the defeat of the pisans to the Meloria. 1398,the castle of “Telaro”( called St. George and then became church) entered again in the possessions of Genoa; in 1400 the suburb, no more protected from the pisans neither from the Genoese, the night of Christmas wass razed to the ground by the Saracens; the survivors were sheltered all to Tellaro that from that moment leaned out to the history. Tellaro will have however its first rector only in 1564. 1528, in a building of Lerici the admiral and political Genoese Andrew Doria broke the alliance with France delivering, of fact, to Spain the dominion on the Mediterranean. 17th - 18th century, Lerici lived its period of greater city planning development, thanks to the presence of a shipping nobility that built buildings and villas still visible today.