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Life was hard for coastal Ligurians in the 16th century. When we think of a period of great instability and insecurity, we think of the Middle Ages, of the barbarian invasions, of the castles that were the most lasting and, for us today, "obvious" material response to that insecurity. But the bastion of Cervo, together with all its brothers scattered along the Ligurian coast from west to east, is there to remind us that in the 16th century there was still danger, and how very much so, and it came from the sea. It came from Barbary piracy, a piracy that swarmed into the West following the Ottoman expansion, often coming from the coasts of North Africa and inexorably striking all the coasts of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and of the rich Liguria in particular. It was often a "corsair" piracy, i.e. a piracy legitimised and wanted by states and principalities. The consequences for the populations were devastating: kidnapping and looting were the order of the day, and so bastions such as the one at Cervo were created to defend people and property as best as possible. The names of these pirates are famous and still inspire fear today: Dragut, and Barbarossa, among others. The phenomenon lasted for centuries, but never with the intensity and danger of that century.

Cervo

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