The name of Oneglia may have its roots in the pre-Roman settlement of
Pagus Unelia, on the hill of Castelvecchio, which was probably one of the
sex oppida of the
Liguri. This spawned
Ripa Uneliae, a village down on the coast probably on the site of the modern-day
Borgo Peri. Modern Oneglia became established on its modern site around 935AD, possibly after it was destroyed by the
Saracens; in 1100 it became a
fief of the
Diocese of Albenga. In 1298 Oneglia became part of the fiefdom of the
Doria family of Genoa; the famous admiral
Andrea Doria (1466–1560) was born in the town. The Dorias sold the town to
Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy in 1576, and Oneglia essentially remained a Savoyard enclave in the
Republic of Genoa until Italian unification. Nonetheless, it was on the front line in the wars of the House of Savoy; it was seized in 1614 and 1649 by the Spaniards and in 1623 and 1672 by the Genoese. In 1692 it had to repulse an attack by a French squadron; in 1744–45 it was again occupied by the Spaniards, and in 1792 bombarded and burned by the French. must be an interpolation in manuscripts of that third century document, since it is named after
Saint Maurice, leader of the
Theban Legion who were not martyred until 286 and could not have been memorialized until the Christianized Empire of the fourth century. It became a Byzantine port after the Gothic Wars of the 6th century, then passed to the
Order of Saint Benedict. It was subject to the
counts of Turin in the 11th century, and then to the marchesi of
Clavesana. Boniface of Clavesana sold the town to the
Republic of Genoa in 1288 in return for a yearly payment, as part of Genoa's expansion into western Liguria. In 1354 it became the seat of the Genoese vicar of the western Riviera. The town prospered even though control of Genoa passed between the French, the
Duchy of Milan, and the Spanish. During the Napoleonic Wars Napoleon Bonaparte himself stopped for a night in Porto Maurizio and spent the night on the Parrasio on the third floor of Palazzo Lavagna. At the
Congress of Vienna in 1815, it was awarded to the
Kingdom of Sardinia, before finally joining a united Italy in 1861. Mussolini created the city of Imperia on 21 October 1923 by the union of Porto Maurizio and Oneglia and the surrounding village communes of Piani, Caramagna Ligure, Castelvecchio di Santa Maria Maggiore, Borgo Sant'Agata, Costa d'Oneglia, Poggi, Torrazza, Moltedo and Montegrazie. ==Economy==