San Tommaso

San Tommaso Church, with the adjoining convent, was one of the most interesting monuments of the Genoese Romanesque style and one of the oldest religious sites of the city.
The ruins of a small mono-apsed hall, dating back to the VI-VII century, is the first reference to a religious building in this place.
In the tenth century it was occupied by Benedictine nuns: a series of capitals located in the cloister of the convent, dating back to the end of the tenth century, are the evidence of the monastery life of this period and are now preserved in the Museum of Sant'Agostino.
In the twelfth century the monastery acquired particular importance, increasing its possessions and undergoing a substantial change that led it to the Romanesque facies: a church with three naves, a crypt,  a tower, a cloister with decorated capitals and the adjoining monastic spaces.
From the mid-fourteenth century, the remodeling of the Romanesque construction began,  leading in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to a complete alteration of the medieval construction to make way for a 'messed-up' building from a stylistic point of view.
The most precious artworks of this place are the nineteenth-century views and photos captured just before its destruction.
The monastic complex stood near the western suburbs of the city, on a rocky promontory called Caput Arenae. This small bay was included into the walls of the fourteenth century, the second circle of the city, and the western door was called San Tommaso, from the toponym of the ancient convent.
The fourteenth-century walls stopped near the door, while in 1500 the walls were modernized and strengthened, in order to adapt them to the possible attack with heavy artillery, which the ancient wall was not able to support.
All the coast line was completely fortified, closing the port front from the San Tommaso door to the Old pier.
The area changed again in the mid-nineteenth century. The church was completely demolished in 1884 to build the Maritime Station.