VERDEGGIA

It was the 30^th of January 1805 when a snow avalanche destroyed part of the village of Verdeggia, and sixteen people died. The rest of inhabitants rebuilt up their house down that valley, in a place more safe than before.

This village was born during the sixteenth century from Lanteri’s Family from Briga Marittima. Now it is an artistic village well conserved, in fact the tourist traffic is growing. During the summer period it is much more visited than a century ago. This village was part of Republic of Genoa, it has always been divided from the village of Realdo, and the two villages are ancient rivals.

Up the Verdeggia’s mountains, during the century’s, there had been numerous bloody fights between the French troops and the Piemonte’s ones, in the Napoleonic period on and around the Saccarello Mount.

In that occasion the soldiers of the Emperor use to make incursions in Verdeggia. They made raids of food, in particular cakes, so winners planned to put the cakes on gable board in order to leave them really disappointed. But when the French troops found out about that trick one of them with much anger cut off a women’s leg. From then onwards men of the village trapped and killed some of the soldiers who were then buried in a hole (common grave) which today it is still called "bricco of the French".