Let's find out some interesting facts about our beloved village, its history and its traditions that are still part of the Andagna's life:
Typical of our village is theousu (bonfire), the traditional bonfire set in the church square on the night of Christmas Eve. It is prepared every year and lit before the traditional Christmas Eve mass.
The horse chestnut trees of Andagna: in 1845/1850 were planted the horse chestnut trees that still surround the St. Martin's church with their thick foliage. The seeds usually called Indian chestnuts, apparently were brought by a young man who was studying at the University of Turin. In 2014 the horse chestnut tree in the village square was cut, as it was considered dangerous for safety.
The Rezegnun is a vegetable and sausage pie typical of Andagna baked covered with embers in a special "testo" (traditional baking tray). The traditional recipe is still alive today and in our beloved village it is still prepared as it once was. TheRezegnun was the typical Mardi Gras pie with sausage and lard; it is richer than the traditional Ligurian vegetable pie, because it was made in order to consume the fatty food available at home, which could not be consumed during the Lenten period. The Proloco decided to reintroduce this typical dish in a festival held every year in the month of August.
The Rezegnun is a dish appreciated by the entire valley. The Proloco Andagna attends several events and allows more people to know and taste this traditional dish. In the video, made for the event Sulle Orme di San Benedetto in Taggia, we present the ingredients to prepare it and we show the traditional "testo" cooking.
The Spaudo was the price the young stranger had to pay when he came to marry a girl from the village. Usually the whole thing was resolved with a playful contest between the various local bachelors and the future groom, who offered a generous dinner to the participants in the contest.
At the end of the 15th century plagues, famine and the population' s ignorance fed the idea that all these things were caused by witches. They were accused of witchcraft simple witches or poor ugly and deformed women. To clarify these rumors, in 1587, the Inquisitor Dal Pozzo intervened, sent by the Bishop of Albenga, followed then by the Chief Inquisitor of Genoa.
The position of the suspects became critical with the arrival in Triora of the civil commissioner Giulio di Scribani who, without wasting time, had those poor women imprisoned, exposing them to uncontrollable torture, in order to make them confess. The interrogations were followed by a series of trials destined to become sadly famous over the centuries, with echoes up to the present day. One of these was instituted against four women from Andagna, named Caterina, and the sisters Antonina, Bianchina and Battistina. The sentence was issued the following year.
Until 50 years ago, on long winter evenings, it was usual to keep vigil around the fire. The recurrent stories, from the elderly, were tales of obscure deeds carried out by the Baggiue (witches) and their diabolical nocturnal meetings that would take place in the Armetta valley, above a rock called Rocca de Baggiue. Rocca de Baggiue.
Inside the "Rinaldo Firighelli" Ethnographic Museum it is possible to find evidence of the life of the Baggiue in the past centuries.
The first "International Rally of Sanremo" was organized in 1928. The following year the event was organized in a different way, including a series of urban streets in the city of Sanremo. The first race on the Sanremo City Car Circuit was held in 1937 and was won by Achille Varzi. The Rally of Sanremo as a rally event was resumed in 1961 as the Rally dei Fiori (Flower Rally)..
From 1970 to 1972, the Rally di Sanremo was part of the International Constructors' Championship. From 1972 to 2003, the event was in the World Rally Championship calendar, with the exception of 1995, when the event was only an episode of the World Constructors' Championship - FIA 2-Litre. The event was the subject of controversy in 1986, after the administrators disqualified the Peugeot team at the end of the third day for the illegal use of miniskirts, handing the victory to the Lancia team. Peugeot used the same configuration of the cars also in the previous events and passed the checks without problems, passing also the pre-rally checks. Peugeot appealed, but the organizers did not allow the team to continue the rally. The FIA confirmed, after the exclusion for illegality of miniskirts, that Peugeot cars were legal, and decided to cancel the results of the whole event.
The Rally of Sanremo was designed with a mixed race surface between asphalt and gravel, but since 1997 the rally has been organized entirely on asphalt. After being excluded from the WRC calendar, the Rally di Sanremo became part of the Italian Rally Championship. Since 2006, it is also a valid race for the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.
Since 2004 the title of Rally d'Italia is the prerogative of the Rally di Sardegna and no more of the Rally di Sanremo.
Since 2005 the special test of the Ronde di Monte Bignone, which had been suspended in 1985, has been reintroduced. It consists of one of the most fascinating timed sections in the history of Italian rallying, and with its 44 km is one of the longest in the world. The test takes place at night and touches the municipalities of Perinaldo, Apricale, Bajardo and the villages of Sanremo Coldirodi and San Romolo.
In 2009 Sergio Maiga, president of ACI Sanremo and brother of the former co-pilot of Sandro Munari and also co-pilot in the 70s, designed an edition with two stages in Liguria and one in Tuscany. The project was supposed to take place in 2010 but it was abandoned.
The 2009 edition saw the victory of the British driver Kris Meeke on the Peugeot 207 Super 200 who was able to celebrate his victory in the IRC championship with one race in advance. For the first time, in 2009 the arrivals and departures of the Rally took place in Piazza Colombo, in the city center. In the following editions, however, the departures, arrivals and awards ceremonies took place again on the Italo Calvino seafront.
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