Lerici

Infobox Italian comune

name = Lerici
official_name = Comune di Lerici
native_name =
image_skyline = Lerici-02.jpg
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latd = 44 |latm = 05 |lats = |latNS = N
longd = 09 |longm = 55 |longs = |longEW = E
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coordinates_display = title
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region = Liguria
province = La Spezia (SP)
frazioni = San Terenzo, Tellaro, La Serra, Pugliola, Solaro, Muggiano, Pozzuolo, Venere Azzurra, Senato
mayor_party =
mayor = Emanuele Fresco
area_footnotes =
area_total_km2 = 15
population_footnotes =
population_total = 10667
population_as_of = 31 December 2007
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population_demonym = Lericini
elevation_footnotes =
elevation_m = 0
twin1 =
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saint = Madonna of Maralunga
day = March 25
postal_code = 19032, 19036, 19030
area_code = 0187
website =
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Lerici is a town and ''comune'' in the province of La Spezia in Liguria (northern Italy), part of the Italian Riviera. Its nearest bay is the Bay of Lerici. The town is connected by ferry to the Cinque Terre and Portovenere. One of the main sights of Lerici is its notorious castle controlling the entrance of the Gulf of La Spezia. Today the castle contains a museum of palaeontology.

History

The origins of the town date back to the Etruscan period. In the Middle Ages the town came under Genovese control. After it had been sold to Lucca, it became involved in a series of conflicts between Genoa and Pisa, as it was on their common border. In 1479, the town came under Genovese sway for good.

Notable people

Italian author Mario Soldati had a residence in the ''frazione'' of Tellaro. English writers Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley lived some three miles north in an isolated old boat house called Casa Magni, and anchored their sailing boat in Lerici. Their closest neighbours were the villagers of the tiny hamlet of San Terenzo. Percy Bysshe Shelley was drowned on July 8, 1822 in the Bay of Spezia, returning to Lerici from a journey to Leghorn and Pisa. His corpse eventually washed up on the beach at Viareggio, located approximately halfway between Livorno and Lerici. The popularity of Lerici with the Shelleys and with Lord Byron earned the Golfo di Lerici its nickname as the Golfo dei Poeti. Hungarian author Baroness Emmuska Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel had a villa built in the hills above Lerici, near the locality of Bellavista, and called it La Padula . Orczy and her husband Montague Barstow spent several months there in the 1930s - alternating between La Padula, Villa Bijou in Monte Carlo, and trips to Britain. Eventually they decided to abandon fascist Italy for Villa Bijou. La Padula still stands today. Italian painter Oreste Carpi spent many years in San Terenzo making hundreds of paintings and drawings reproducing town landscapes.

Culture

Lerici is one of the mariner communities which take part in the Palio del Golfo, a rowing contest held in La Spezia every first Sunday of August.

Twin towns

Mougins, France, since 26 October 2008 Lerici is also twinned with Horsham, in Great Britain, although the latter no longer records this as an 'active' twinning on its official website

References

Horsham twinning page
Horsham Town Guide, see twinning section

External links

Website of the municipality.
Website of Pro Loco Lerici Learn about the events and tourist activities.
Museum of palaeontology

Lerici