The patron saint of Olivetta San Michele is Saint Anthony of Padua, celebrated on 13 June, in the church dedicated to him.
It was around the year 1000 that feudal power consolidated over Olivetta's territory, linked to the castle and community of Penna, a medieval village that, after the 1947 Paris peace treaty, passed under French jurisdiction, into the municipality of Breglio, along with Olivetta's other hamlet of Libri. The territory was assigned to the Benedictine monks of the abbey of Lérins, who spread olive cultivation there, especially the Taggiasca variety, favouring the building of oil mills and new settlements along the watercourses. In 1451, a band of about 150 bandits, led by Brondetto di Sospello and perhaps in the pay of the Duke of Savoy, managed to seize the castle and village of Penna; the following year, the lord of Dolceacqua, Enrichetto Doria, reconquered the manor on behalf of the Republic of Genoa. The town still preserves today the remains of a castle and medieval rural settlements.
