Bordighera

Bordighera
Country	Italy
region	Liguria
province	Imperia  (IM)
Coordinates	43 ° 47 '  N , 7 ° 40'  E Coordinates: 43 ° 47 '0 "  N , 7 ° 40' 0"  E
height	5  m slm
surface	10 km²
Residents	10,373 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	1,037 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	18012
prefix	0184
ISTAT number	008008
Popular name	A984
Patron saint	Sant'Ampelio
Website	http://www.bordighera.it/
Aerial view of Bordighera

Claude Monet : Bordighera (1884)

The Abandoned Hotel Fear (2013)

Bordighera is an Italian holiday and seaside resort with 10,373 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) in the province of Imperia , Liguria region on the Italian Riviera .

geography

The neighboring town to the east along the coast is Ospedaletti , while Sanremo is the urban center of the area. In the west Bordighera borders on Vallecrosia and the border town of Ventimiglia , which together form an urban unit.

Bordighera is divided into two parts of the city: the old town and the newer part from the 19th and 20th centuries. The historic old town is located in the east of Bordighera on a 46 m high hill, the Capo San Ampelio (Cape Ampelio). The new town stretches along the coast from the old town to the Nervia estuary in the west. Bordighera has a special microclimate with milder summers and warmer winters with relatively low humidity.

history

City history

It is known that Ligurian tribes settled in what is now the urban area as early as the 5th century BC. In the year 411 the hermit Ampelio, who came from Egypt , is said to have planted date palms here. The history of the town of Bordighera begins in 1340, as it was first documented as a small settlement as "Villa Burdighete". This settlement must have been abandoned later.

On September 2, 1470, in a meeting of 32 families from "Castrum Sancti Nicolai" ("Borghetto San Nicolo" was a former village, which is now a district of Bordighera), the decision was made to use the place on the hill above the church To rebuild Cape Ampelio. On April 20, 1686, eight villages - including Bordighera - founded a "Free Eight-Villages Republic" which existed until the Napoleonic era. Bordighera later belonged to the Democratic Republic of Liguria and this was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia as a result of the Congress of Vienna .

The place became known throughout England through the romantic romance novel Il Dottor Antonio by Giovanni Ruffini , which is set in San Remo and Bordighera and first appeared in Edinburgh in 1855 . This triggered a wave of travelers to the Italian Riviera, especially from England, but also from France, Russia, Germany and Austria to Bordighera and San Remo. The tourist flow was increased with the construction of the railroad in 1872. At that time there was mainly winter tourism, that is, the tourists came in autumn and stayed until spring next year. At times there were more English people in town than locals.

In 1941, the Italian dictator Mussolini met in Bordighera with the dictator of nationalist Spain, General Franco . The Spanish Foreign Minister Ramón Serrano Súñer was also present. It is believed that Mussolini wanted to dissuade Franco from participating in World War II (which Hitler demanded) because he feared the loss of Italian power in the Mediterranean region. The place of the meeting was the Villa Margherita .

Population development

year Residents 1861 2,358 1871 2,357 1881 3,026 1901 4,843 1911 5,470 1921 6,142 1931 7,256

year Residents 1936 7,334 1951 8,515 1961 11,252 1971 11,654 1981 12,043 1991 11,129 2001 10,292

politics

mayor

• 1946–1965: Prof. Raul Zaccari
• 1965-1970: Lodovico Ronco
• 1970–1971: Dr. Giulio Martinucci
• 1971–1975: Emilio Verrando
• 1975–1980: Dr. Giorgio Laura
• 1980-1982: Livio Gerin
• 

  Claude Monet: Strada Romana in Bordighera , 1884, oil on canvas, 65 × 81 cm, Nahmad Collection (private)
  1982–1983: Pier Giorgio Zaccari (until July 31, 1983)
• 1983–1983: Giovanbattista Ansaldi (August 1 - October 10)
• 1983–1984: Renata Olivo (until February 24, 1984)
• 1984–1984: Dr. Amando Levante (March 10th - August 25th)
• 1984-1994: Renata Olivo
• 1994–2002: Dr. Ivo Alvaro Vignali
• since 2002: Giovanni Bosio

Source:

Twin cities

Villefranche-sur-Mer , France , since 1956 Neckarsulm , Germany , since 1963

Culture and sights

Lunch in the old town

View to the small port of the Via Romana from

Bordighera is described by travelers, painters and poets as a place of exceptional beauty, primarily because of its rich Mediterranean flora . In 1869, the botanist Gerolamo Molinari counted around 12,000 palm trees, 36,000 lemon and orange trees and around 50,000 olive trees. There are also eucalyptus trees , myrtles , mimosas , agaves , oleanders and, in addition to a variety of different cacti , other exotic plant species. Famous personalities such as the English writer Charles Dickens and the French painter Claude Monet were particularly impressed by the richly colored and scented flora .

The old town

In the picturesque old town, the three city gates - in the south the Porta del Capo (17th century), in the east the Porta della Maddalena (rebuilt in 1780) and in the west the Porta Sottana (15th century) - and the remains of the city wall are particularly worth seeing . Through winding streets you reach the Piazza del Popolo with the parish church of Santa Maria Maddalena (from 1617, rebuilt in 1886). Also worth mentioning is the town hall, which Charles Garnier built in 1870 in a style similar to the baroque. At Capo San Ampelio , at the eastern entrance to the town below the old town, a small chapel commemorates St. Ampelio - the hermit who is said to have brought the seeds of the date palm from Egypt here.

The new town

The new town consists mainly of hotels, Art Nouveau villas with beautiful gardens and a long and beautiful lake promenade. Worth mentioning is the Bicknell Museum (founded in 1888), which is now also the seat of the "International Institute for Ligurian Studies" (founded in 1938). Clarence Bicknell (1842-1918) was an English naturalist, archaeologist , botanist , mathematician, and Protestant pastor . The Bicknell Museum contains well over 50,000 volumes, maps and around 12,000 petroglyphs that Bicknell discovered and signed on the slopes of Mont Bégo in the Vallée des Merveilles (Valley of Wonders). The city also owes Bicknell the establishment of the city library in 1883. This library has around 70,000 volumes, of which around 22,000 come from an English foundation. On the eastern edge of the Neustadt a British civil and military cemetery can be visited, where some Austro-Hungarian fallen soldiers from the First World War are also buried.

economy

The city lives mainly from tourism. In addition, Bordighera has the privilege of intricately woven palm frond, which since 1586 Palmurelli , for Palm Sunday - procession to the Vatican to Rome to be able to deliver.

novel

• Giovanni Domenico Ruffini: Doctor Antonio (1855) ( filmed in Italy in 1937 by Enrico Guazzoni and filmed in four parts for television in 1954).
• John von Düffel : Hotel Angst , Novelle, Cologne 2006.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
2. ^ Antony Beevor (traduit par Jean-François Sené): La Guerre d'Espagne . 3. Edition. No. 31153 . Éditions Calmann-Lévy, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-253-12092-6 , pp. 731 .
3. ↑ Christoph Becker, Robert Brown, Faith Chisholm, Lukas Gloor, William Paton: The Nahmad Collection (exhibition catalog) . DuMont Buchverlag / Kunsthaus Zürich , Cologne / Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-8321-9407-9 , p. 46 f .
4. ↑ Kurt Bauer: 40 years of town twinning between Bordighera and Neckarsulm 1963-2003 , Neckarsulm 2003, pages 94 to 109

literature

• Sybille Geier: Liguria, Cinque Terre, Italian Riviera , Reise Know-How Verlag Peter Rump GmbH, Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 3-8317-1342-1 .
• Kurt Bauer: 40 years of twinning between Bordighera and Neckarsulm 1963–2003 , publisher Stadt Neckarsulm, Neckarsulm 2003
• Eckart Diezemann: Italian Riviera - The Ligurian Coast , Goldstadtverlag GmbH, Pforzheim 2000, ISBN 3-89550-005-4 .
• Wilhelm Hörstel: The Palmyra of Italy. With nine illustrations based on original photographs . In: Reclams Universum: Moderne Illustrierte Wochenschrift 28.2 (1912), pp. 745–750.

Web links

• Bordighera website in German

Commons : Bordighera  - album with pictures, videos and audio files