Built in 1831 at the behest of the Savoy family on the site of the Convent of Minori Osservanti di San Francesco(1503), the Annunziata Fortress is located on a promontory overlooking the sea. Its strategic location, in the past, played a highly defensive role while today offers a lovely view of the Mediterranean sea, the Italian and French Riviera stretching from Bordighera (Ampelio Cape) to Saint Tropez (Capo D'Esterel).
The first historical evidence of the site dates back to 1349. The church of St. Lazarus, adjacent to a hospital for lepers stood there. The building once used as a military site was part of a complex defensive system and was linked with walkways and underground paths to the above San Paolo Fortress. The Annunziata Fortress was transformed into a museum in 1876 by the scholar Jerome Rossi (1839-1914), the discoverer of the Roman city of Albintimilium, but was only finally completed in 1989.
The first floor today houses the most prestigious and comprehensive archaeological museum of Liguria. Developed on over 1,200 square meters, it offers visitors the exhibition of treasures found in the archaeological area of the ancient Albintimilium. In its many rooms visitors can admire: glass found in the necropolis, ointment jars for perfumes, tableware, cups, glasses, clay statuettes, figurines of deities and heroes, votive heads, oil lamps of grave goods, a lapidary with over 50 Roman inscriptions and 16 marble busts of early imperial age, Hanbury collection sculptures (statues, texts, reliefs, sarcophagi).
The Annunziata Fortress and area has been the subject, in recent years, of an important project of restoration which allowed the recovery of rooms on the ground floor, of the beautiful open terrace overlooking Punta Rocca sea, and the spaces below.
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