The Complex of San Calocero is located on the northern slopes of Monte di San Martino, outside the walled city of Albenga, in an area that has restored pre-existing Roman imperial age. It consists of the remains of a late antique funerary settlement , on which the martyrial church was built, whose first certain phase is attributable to the first half of the century, and of a medieval monastery.

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The memory of a strong religious tradition dating back to late antiquity and epigraphic findings of great importance - the oldest memory of epigraphs from San Calocero dates back to the 15th century - have helped to keep the interest in this site, which was definitively abandoned, alive in the ingauna community. in 1593, when the Clarisse nuns moved within the urban context to the district of Santa Eulalia (now the old hospital).

We owe to Nino Lamboglia (1912-1977) the first explorations of the site in 1934, continued with the significant campaign of 1938-'39 and in 1971. This great archaeologist, who did his utmost to spread and extend to classical and medieval archeology the stratigraphic method in the excavation investigations, in the San Calocero he made the first experiences of stratigraphic archeology.

The Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Liguria in the period between 1985 and 2008 gave particular importance to the research, protection and enhancement of the San Calocero complex with a view to restoring the site and its knowledge to the wider public. The Pontifical Institute of Christian Archeology and the Ecole Francaise de Rome collaborated in the archaeological investigations.

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