The patroness of Riccò del Golfo di Spezia is Holy Cross (Santa Croce), celebrated on 3 May. The parish church dedicated to her, in the main town, dates from the 15th century with renovations in 1639, and holds inside a fine 18th-century bas-relief; adjoining it is the town's old cemetery, abandoned in the 1930s.
Riccò's history is tied to the castle of Carpena and its consortium, founded by various feudal lordships in the 12th century, which together with the stronghold of Ponzò dominated a strategic area between the Cinque Terre and the gulf of La Spezia; in ancient times Riccò was a small dependency of the castle of Ponzò, a stopping place for soldiers and pilgrims along the road towards Tuscany. In 1245 the feudal lords handed the castle over to Oberto II Pallavicino to resist Genoa's expansion, which later reconquered it; passed to the Fieschi family, it eventually returned to the Doria. Carpena's final decline came in 1412, when the village sided with Florence against Genoa: its castle was destroyed in retaliation by Antonio Doria.
