The patron saint of Borghetto di Vara is Saint Charles Borromeo, celebrated on 4 November. The archpriestly church dedicated to him was built between 1615 and 1618, in a central area of the town once called Sogiora, today Piazza Umberto I, on the occasion of Borghetto's territory being separated from the parish of Ripalta: the choice of the patron saint was made through a curious method, lighting many candles, each corresponding to a particular saint, and awarding the patronage to whichever remained lit the longest, which turned out to be the one assigned to Saint Charles Borromeo. The first mass was solemnly celebrated on 8 October 1618, and the following year the church was raised to parish status.
In 1943, during the Second World War, the church's basement temporarily housed about 35,000 volumes from La Spezia's «U. Mazzini» Library: the following year a fierce Allied air raid destroyed the 17th-century church along with the volumes, leaving only the bell tower standing, which still rises above the town today. The parish then found a home in the new church of the Sacro Cuore di Gesù, built along the Via Aurelia between 1926 and 1937. The town also preserves the church of San Michele Arcangelo, in the hamlet of Cassana, which houses a 1555 triptych attributed to the painter Nicolò Vespesiano.
