The patroness of Vernazza is Saint Margaret of Antioch, celebrated on 20 July. The parish church dedicated to her, a testament to the Antelami school begun in 1318, perfectly preserves its three wide naves; the entrance opens on the apse side and the altar faces east, following ancient liturgical custom, while the octagonal tower, set on the apse, ends in a distinctive tapering after a double crown of small arches.
The village began to grow in the 11th century, thanks to the reduced Saracen threat after the battle of 1016, with the arrival of inhabitants from the hilltop settlements around the sanctuary of Nostra Signora di Reggio. The Doria castle, first recorded in the 13th century over a core possibly dating from the 11th, takes its name from the Genoese family that in 1273 defeated Nicolò Fieschi, who was attempting to create a lordship independent of Genoa in the Gulf of La Spezia: three years later, in 1276, Fieschi was forced to sell the Republic all his rights over the area.
