ft its characteristic mark in the armorial
bearings of the town, the Crusaders' Palm upon its shield. While its
neighbours, Ventimiglia and Albenga, sank into haunts of a feudal
noblesse, San Remo became a town of busy merchants, linked by treaties
of commerce with the trading cities of the French and Italian coasts.
The erection of San Siro marked the wealth and devotion of its citizens.
Ruined as it is, like all the churches of the Riviera, by the ochre and
stucco of a tasteless restoration, San Siro still retains much of the
characteristic twelfth-century work of its first foundation. The
alliance of the city with Genoa was that of a perfectly free State. The
terms of the treaty which was concluded between the two Republics in
1361 in the Genoese basilica of San Lorenzo are curious as illustrating
the federal relations of Italian States. It was in effect little more
than a judicial and military convention. Internal legislation, taxation,
rights of independent warfare, peace, and alliance were left wholly in
the power of the free commune. San Remo was bound to contribute ships
and men for service in Genoese warfare, but in return its citizens
shared the valuable privileges of those of Genoa in all parts of the
world. Genoa, as purchaser of the feudal rights of its lords, nominated
the podesta and other judicial officers, but these officers were bound
to administer the laws passed or adopted by the commune. The red cross
of Genoa was placed above the palm tree of San Remo on the shield of the
Republic; and on these terms the federal relations of the two States
continued without quarrel or change for nearly four hundred years.

The town continued to prosper till the alliance of Francis I. with the
Turks brought the scourge of the Moslem again on the Riviera. The
"Saracen towers" with which the coast is studded tell to this day the
tale of the raids of Barbarossa and Dragut. The blow fell heavily on San
Remo. The ruined quarter beneath its wall still witnesses to the heathen
fury. San Siro, which lay without the walls, was more than once
desecrated and reduced to ruin. A special officer was appointed by the
town to receive contributions for the ransom of citizens carried off by
the corsairs of Algiers or Tunis. These terrible razzias, which went on
to the very close of the last century, have left their mark on the
popular traditions of the coast. But the ruin which they began was
consummated by the purposeless bombardment