The patron saint of Altare is Saint Roch, celebrated on 16 August. His oratory was erected in 1590 but originally dedicated to Saint Eugene the Abbot, protector of glassmakers and the town's ancient patron; only after the plague that afflicted the inhabitants between 1628 and 1631 was overcome was the oratory renamed for Saint Roch.
From the 10th century the fief of Altare depended on the Benedictine monks of the monastery of Sant'Eugenio on the island of Bergeggi, part of the holdings of the abbey of Lerino: thanks to them the new town arose in the 12th century, and the old parish church of Sant'Eugenio, today the church of the Santissima Annunziata, was dedicated precisely to the town's ancient patron saint. It was the same monks who imported from France the art of glassmaking, which over the following centuries made Altare's fortune: glass production continued uninterrupted from the 12th to the 20th century, until in 1856 the furnaces united into a single cooperative company, the SAV, Società Artistico Vetraria.
