The zone of Vernazza already was inhabited in roman age: in fact the lands confiscated
to from Liguria ones had been yielded to the coloni roman. In the century WAYS Vernazza
it appears like “Vulnetia” in the Ravennate Anonymous person. The origin of the coastal
village is from being connected to the existing nucleus around the ancient church of Reggio,
today sanctuary of Vernazza. Towards the year the 1000 inhabitants of Reggio left the country:
a part headed towards the inside and it was stopped in the flat one of Pinion where it founded
such country exactly, others went instead towards the coast and joining to the nuclei already
existing they gave origin to Vernazza. Vernazza comes cited for before the time in a document of 1050.
In i centuries XI and XII Obertenghi getlteman governed zone i, which made
to construct also a castle on one spur full of rocks and difficult to attack.
Such castle is documented from 1056. Already then, thanks to its natural port very repaired,
Vernazza was one of the main ports of call of Five Lands. The inhabitants of Vernazza were
skillful sailors but had completed raids against the near communities and also against
Genoa and Pisa.
Just for this reason in the 1209 Vernazza it had been punished
from Genoa for actions of pirateria that it
had carried out against the Republic. It was feudo of the bishops of Luni, it passed then to the bishops
of From Pass then and to those of Ponzò. In the 1211 Vernazza it was conquered from the Republic of Genoa
that already in 1182 had occupied the castle reinforcing it. For the importance of its port it was granted to
Vernazza I privilege eleggere a deputy to the parliament of the Republic without which the state of war could
not be decreed. The Fieschi, powerful family that had possedimenti in the Gulf breaks
and that it still controlled the territories of Five Lands, in the 1254 they tried to reconstruct
theirs feudo. But the genovese Republic, decided by now to assert directly and in definitive
way its presence in this drawn of from Liguria coast, defeated them and in the 1276 Vernazza
and the other villages they passed under the Republic. Seen its importance harbour the country
was muito from the Genovesi of a defensive system that still today allows us to admire the bastion,
the towers of lookout-post and rests of the town-walls building. Vernazza remained the village more
important of Five Lands and the standard of living of the inhabitants more elevated regarding that one
of the other near countries. In 1379 it was podesteria center.
