12. The Via Bernardo Ricci and the Quattro Canti

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Walking west along Via Bernardo Ricci from Piazza San Michele, you'll find yourself immersed in medieval and Renaissance houses that tell the story of Albenga's urban history.

On the left, after the Town Hall, you'll find the Fieschi Ricci house , with its large slate portal and finely decorated interior doors, adorned with inscriptions from biblical and classical passages. In the side alley, the wall made of small stone ashlars (11th-12th century) houses an elegant single-lancet window with a crutch capital. Continuing, some loggias and houses now house modern businesses, yet retain the city's ancient charm.

On the opposite side, you can see the episcopal palace , with the corner tower in high stone facing, and the fifteenth-century facade decorated with frescoes, dated 1463 and attributed to Bishop Napoleone Fieschi.

We then reach the characteristic loggia of the Quattro Canti , the intersection of the cardo maximus and the decumanus, the main streets of the Roman city. The loggia, opened to widen the traffic flow, dates back to the 14th century and features two distinct styles: a round arch and a pointed arch, testifying to a period of architectural transition.

The crossroads is dominated by two towers that controlled the different sections of the road: the Della Lengueglia-Lodolo D'Oria tower , older, with a high stone facing and 14th-century mullioned windows, and the Della Lengueglia-Rolandi Ricci tower , dating back to a slightly more recent period, with a facing in large squared ashlars of a lower height.

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