Cairo Montenotte

Cairo Montenotte spreads along the left bank of the Bormida in the upper Val Bormida, inland from Savona and Genoa. It became the valley’s principal town despite having no outlet on the sea, its importance growing from passage through a landscape of hills rather than from a harbour. Finds of arrowheads, spearpoints and polished stone axes show Neolithic activity, and the area was probably occupied by the Ligurian Statielli before Rome conquered Liguria.

Roman engineers cut the Via Aemilia Scauri through the valley in 109 BC, linking Tortona with Vado Ligure; a station called Canalicum or Calanico stood at Cairo. Its name comes from a Ligurian root meaning stone or rock. “Carium” was first documented in 967, when Emperor Otto I granted lands devastated by earlier Lombard and Saracen incursions.

Cairo’s castle was later sold to Genoa, and the valley remained a contested route among regional lords. In 1796 Montenotte Superiore became the setting of Napoleon’s first success in the Italian campaign. That battle gave the town a wider military identity.