20 
ALASSIO AND ITS FLORA 
by the creation of the parish church of 
SanfAmbrogio restored and enlarged by' 
the tax which the commune of Albenga 
had levied on the Alassians of 5000 du- 
cats of gold. Danger united the different 
parties and the Alassians, having armed 
themselves as well as they could, found 
themselves under the walls of Albenga in . 
May 1513, where if they did not succeed in 
burning the city as they had intended, 
they retired in good order after a sangui- 
nary struggle and after having obtained 
an administrative independence which was 
followed by freedom in politics, or rather 
a state of dependence upon the Commune of 
Genoa. 
About this time the Alassians erected 
the bastions and the walls (now almost 
entirely destroyed) to defend themselves 
from the probable aggressions of the peopl e 
of Albenga, and from the Saracens who 
infested pur seas. They had not yet fini- 
shed this splendid work when Aliamath 
took and burnt the neigbouring town of 
Laigueglia, which hoAvever he was soon 
obliged to abandon, Giuliano Berno, of 
