The Tower of the Church of San Donato

The church of San Donato di Genova is an octagonal bell tower made of cut stone in the 12th century. This tower replaced the earlier tower tiburium and has three orders of superimposed columns, mullioned windows, three- and four-light windows, the latter added in the 19th century by D'Andrade.In 1650, the tower was the scene of a singular episode: the nobleman Stefano Raggio, who lived in the vicinity of the church, climbed the tower together with a group of men loyal to him and started shooting with arquebuses at the cops who had been sent to arrest him for high treason. He managed to kill three or four of them before being captured and sentenced to death by hanging.The Ray had been accused of preparing a coup d'état and even of wanting to assassinate Doge Giacomo De Franchi, because of some slanders he had spread about the figure of the Doge. Despite the fact that he had held important public offices in the past in an exemplary manner and that the evidence of his guilt was extremely weak, he was nevertheless sentenced to death.In prison, Stefano Raggio had his wife bring him a crucifix concealing a dagger and mortally wounded himself, but this was not enough to save him from the gallows. The birri took him to the Old Pier, where capital punishment sentences were carried out, and there they hanged him for "lese majesty."In Genoa, a legend circulates that the ghost of Stefano Raggio still roams the vicinity of his house and sometimes appears in the church of San Donato dressed in red and leaning against a column, especially during the fall.