The Entella is a very short river within the

Metropolitan City of Genoa The Metropolitan City of Genoa () is a metropolitan city in the region of Liguria in northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Genoa. It replaced the province of Genoa in 2015. It has 67 municipalities (''comuni) in'' an area of and a total p ...

(former

Province of Genoa The province of Genoa () 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 0.9 million (2009). There are ...

) in the

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) 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 roughly coextensive with ...

region of northwestern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

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

Ligurian Sea The Ligurian Sea 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 Ligures people. Geography The sea borders Italy as far as ...

Etymology

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

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

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

; 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 Association football, football club based in Chiavari, Liguria. Founded in 1914, the club currently competes in the . Entella will play in Serie B 2025/26 after winning ...

) 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, in the Italian region of Liguria. History and culture The village, unlike nearby Chiavari which has pre-Ancient Rome, Roman evidence, seems to have developed in Ancient ...

and Sturla streams, near

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

in the

Province of Genova The province of Genoa () 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 0.9 million (2009). There are ...

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

between

Chiavari Chiavari (; ) is a seaside comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, in Italy. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It has a beachside promenade and a marina and is situated near the river Entella (river), Entella. History Pre-Rom ...

and

, in a large and in summer an almost totally dry riverbed.

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 (, , ) or Republic of Liguria 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 the small Imper ...

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 Metropolitan City of Genoa 01 Drainage basins of the Ligurian Sea Rivers of the Apennines Rivers of Italy