Handicrafts and Art in Pieve di Teco are very famous. Creations in wrought iron forged by hand, sophisticated stained-glass windows with magnificent colours... are the most precious artisan products created by the skilful hands of the Pieve artistic masters.

1. Handicrafts And Art In Pieve Di Teco
Handicrafts and Art in Pieve di Teco are very famous. Creations in wrought
iron forged by hand, sophisticated stained-glass windows with magnificent
colours... are the most precious artisan products created by the skilful
hands of the Pieve artistic masters. Furnishing and design jewels, that can
be discovered walking through the historical centre of Pieve di Teco, in
workshops in the shadows of the monumental gothic arches and
doorways sculpted in stone, where once upon a time the perpetual noise
rang out of the hammers of hundreds of cobblers who, in the very same
tiny workshops, used to make indestructible hobnailed boots. An ancient
technique, the only faint memory of which remains the present day
production by hand of boots for hunting, mountaineering, rockclimbing
and skiing.
The arcades of these medieval porticos are curiously arranged on different
levels to make the homes of the aristocratic families, who were entitled to
build higher porticos, stand out from those of the rest of the population.
Pieve di Teco is a highly-prized village, whose origins go back to the XII
century, when the marquises of Clavesana built a mansion on the

2. foundations of the Teichos, the ancient military camp of Byzantine origin,
that together with the noun plebs (central community), contributed to
the name of the village. The actual village was built a century later, when
the Lord of the castle granted some peasants the right to build a village
near the Oratory of Saint John the Baptist. It was a strategic position for
exploiting the trading between the Ligurian coast and Piedmont.
Soon Pieve di Teco became the rich home of numerous products: paper,
foot-wear, soap, ropes, cloth and leather. A commercial origin and
vocation that would ensure wealth and prosperity, as the important
artistic clients prove. The architect Gaetano Cantoni, an important
personality of Ligurian-Lombard neoclassicism, was commissioned to
design the new majestic parish church: the Collegiate Church of Saint John
the Baptist. Works started in 1785 when the old Romanesque church was
demolished and ended in 1806.

3. Under the heavy dome, the basilica preserves works of art such as the
wooden crucifix by Francesco Schiaffino, the Martyr of Saint Sebastian by
Giulio Benso, a local painter (1601-1668), the Last Supper by Domenico
Piola and San Francesco da Paola, attributed to the hand of Luca
Cambiaso. Before this time, the parish church had been the fifteenth
century Chiesa di Santa Maria della Ripa, today deconsecrated, which
preserves a bell tower from the XV century. Where the river Armo meets
the Arrogna, rises the Sanctuary of Madonna of the Muds, a late-Baroque
building, as its strange name confirms, in an area that was muddy because
of the abundance of water. Other important monuments are the San
Lazzaro Hospital with its beautiful fifteenth century portal and the
Convento degli Agostiniani, which has the largest cloisters in Western
Liguria. Just a bit higher up, stretch the thick and fascinating Cappuccini
woods, with their ancient trees.

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