The Entella is a very short river within the

Metropolitan City of Genoa The Metropolitan City of Genoa ( it, Città Metropolitana di Genova) is one of the fourteen Metropolitan cities of Italy, located in the region of Liguria. Its capital is the city of Genoa. It replaced the Province of Genoa. History It was first c ...

(former

Province of Genoa The Province of Genoa (Italian ''Provincia di Genova'') was a province in the Liguria region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Genoa. It was replaced by Metropolitan City of Genoa. Overview It has an area of and a total population of about ...

) in the

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

region of northwestern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It and its tributaries flow from the Ligurian Apennines Mountains to the

Ligurian Sea The Ligurian Sea ( it, Mar Ligure; french: Mer Ligurienne; lij, Mâ Ligure) is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. It lies between the Italian Riviera (Liguria) and the island of Corsica. The sea is thought to have been named after the ancient L ...

Etymology

Chiavari-fiume Entella e ponte ferroviario in legno nel XX secolo

The name ''Entella'' was given to the river by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

; it's maybe derived from ''entos'' ( = inside) and ''elòa'' ( = olive), due to the dark-green colour of the river banks of its upper basin. The name came into the popular use from the end of the 18th century; the river was previously called by common people ''Lavagna''. In 1914 the football club ''Foot-Ball Club Entella'' (now

Virtus Entella Virtus Entella, commonly referred to as Entella, is an Italian professional football club based in Chiavari, Liguria. Founded in 1914, the club currently competes in the . History 1914: Foundation The club was founded in 1914 as Foot-Ball Club ...

) took its name from the river.

Geography

The Entella is formed by the confluence of the

Lavagna Lavagna is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, Italy. History and Culture The village, unlike nearby Chiavari which has pre-Roman evidence, seems to have developed in Roman times with the Latin name of ''Lavania''. The ...

and

Sturla Sturla (Stûrlâ in Ligurian) is a quartiere of Genoa. It began life as an ancient fishing village which developed around a number of small coves – Sturla a Mare, at the mouth of the Sturla river, Vernazzola and Boccadasse (Boccadasse is now in ...

streams, near

Carasco Carasco is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italy, Italian region Liguria, located about east of Genoa in the Val Fontanabuona. Carasco borders the following municipalities: Chiavari, Cogorno, Leivi, Mezzanego, ...

in the

Province of Genova The Province of Genoa (Italian language, Italian ''Provincia di Genova'') was a Provinces of Italy, province in the Liguria region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Genoa. It was replaced by Metropolitan City of Genoa. Overview It has an are ...

. The river then flows westwards at first before turning south before it meets the

between

Chiavari Chiavari (; lij, Ciävai ) is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, in Italy. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It is situated near the river Entella. History Pre-Roman and Roman Era A pre-Roman necropolis, which dates f ...

and

, in a large and in summer an almost totally dry

riverbed A stream bed or streambed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) or the physical confine of the normal water flow ( channel). The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream banks or river banks, during all but flood ...

Tributaries

Besides Lavagna and Sturla the only relevant tributary of the Entella river is the ''torrente'' Graveglia''.

History

The ''Département de l'Entelle'' or ''Dipartimento dell'Entella'' of

Ligurian Republic The Ligurian Republic ( it, Repubblica Ligure, lij, Repubbrica Ligure) was a French client republic formed by Napoleon on 14 June 1797. It consisted of the old Republic of Genoa, which covered most of the Ligurian region of Northwest Italy, and ...

took its name at the end of the 18th century from the river.

Conservation

The medium and low part of the river course belongs to the SIC ''(

Site of Community Importance A Site of Community Importance (SCI) is defined in the European Commission Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) as a site which, in the biogeographical region or regions to which it belongs, contributes significantly to the maintenance or restoration at ...

)'' called ''Foce e medio corso del Fiume Entella'' - code '' IT1332717''.

References

External links

Liguriabirding.net: Birdwatching on the Entella
{{Authority control Rivers of the Province of Genoa 01 Drainage basins of the Ligurian Sea Rivers of the Apennines Rivers of Italy