The peculiar feature of the old town of Sanremo, as well as of many towns and villages nearby, is its shape that resembles a pine-cone’s. This comes mainly from two reasons: one is the lack of space for building, that forced people to build narrow and tall houses; and the other is a strategic reason. A big threat came from the sea at that time, and it was the Sarazins, pirates from Africa who used to come ashore, rob the villagers of their goods and also rape them to sell them as slaves.So houses were built on top of the hills to allow villagers to see the Sarazins and get ready for defence.
So the old town of Sanremo, as well as a village in a valley nearby, took their name „La Pigna“ from pine-cones.

Outside the town local people attended their activities (fishing and agricolture); but they took shelter at night and in case of danger inside the „Pine-cone“ where they were protected by the town walls. Town walls had gates to allow people in and out, but there also was a false gate, called „the lying gate“: in case of an attack, once the enemies broke through, they would find themselves in the countryside rather than in town.

When there was no room left for more houses inside the town walls, the new houses were built outside, and soon after a new circle of walls was built. This happened at least three times in the history of Sanremo.

Houses were built near one another, and streets were narrow and steep; some of them were vaulted. They were made of stones and bricks. Sometimes iron bars were fixed in the walls to prevent them from falling apart after earthquakes.

Arches between the houses were built and they still can be seen today. They were used for escaping from one house to another in case the enemies broke through in town. They were also used for throwing all sorts of things on the enemies: arrows, stones and also…boiling oil!

After the Sarazin threat was overcome for good, the lord- bishops became in control of towns and villages and made the economical revival possible, but they also imposed a lot of taxes. Craftsmen and merchants came back to Sanremo and they got together in trading associations of economical nature that developed into political.These associations gave birth to the first statutes, that soon developed into municipal statutes.