PORTOVENERE (anc.

See also:

• PORTUS

Portus Veneris)  , a town and summer resort of Liguria, Italy, in the province of Genoa, at the southern extremity of the peninsula which protects the Gulf of Spezia on the west, 7 M . S. of Spezia by road . Pop . (1901), 1553 (town); 5754 (commune) . The fortress and walls with which it was provided by the Genoese in the 9th or loth century have been destroyed for military reasons . The restored church of St Peter, of black and white marble (1118; destroyed by the Aragonese in 1494), is reputed to occupy the site of a temple of Venus . The parish church dates from 2098 . Yellow-veined black marble, known as Portoro, and building-stone are quarried here and in the fortified island of Palmaria to the east of Portovenere . In the Grotta dei Colombi objects of the Palaeolithic age have been found .