The village
The village of Zuccarello was founded by the Marquises of Clavesana in the Middle Ages and later the Marquises Del Carretto elected it as the capital of their dominion and seat of the Marquis palace. The still visible centuries-old buildings, such as the castle located at the top of the hill that dominates the surrounding area and the Roman bridge known as one of the most evocative of all Liguria are evidence of this history. There are also numerous hiking trails that stretch through a lush vegetation consisting of olive trees, chestnut trees, vegetable gardens and flowering especially in spring.
The history
The village has medieval origins, with a visible intact fortification, which preserves inside the two main access doors and the defensive towers, with the ruins of the castle that overlook the historic centre from above. Zuccarello was founded in the thirteenth century, and the notarial deeds relating to this foundation and the relative statutes, among the oldest still existing in Western Liguria are still preserved. One of the most beautiful villages of Italy, it is characterized by small porches and evocative inner streets from which you can reach the Marquis Palace and the seventeenth-century parish church with a Romanesque bell tower. It has always been a strategic place for communication and commerce routes, which developed into the inland from the coast. For many centuries, it was contended among the various factions of noble families that controlled the surrounding territories, including the Del Carretto family who inherited it as a fief until it was transferred to the Republic of Genoa in the seventeenth century. In the following centuries, Zuccarello followed the fate of the nearby villages, with French domination, the passage to the Ligurian Republic and finally to the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
