S.Croce

On the north-western slopes of Monte S. Croce, where the ridge divides the Crosia and Nervia valleys, a Roman site clings to the hillside. The name comes from an 18th-century chapel on the summit plateau, now deconsecrated and abandoned. The northern flank drops steeply from 359 metres to 300, then softens into a more gentle, terraced slope held by dry-stone walls. At the lower edge, at 275 metres, a formidable retaining wall appears, built of the same technique but on an entirely different scale. Its irregular conglomerate blocks, some 120 centimetres long, rise to 380 centimetres in places; about fifty metres of it survive. The area was pinpointed and explored during surface surveys in the summer of 2003, yielding a notable quantity of pottery, tiles, amphorae, fine tableware, dating between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, including a rim of Greco-Italic type. A modest, stubborn fragment of Roman rural life, holding its ground.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.