In 1672 Genoese troops laid siege to the castle, left it badly damaged and forced the House of Savoy to hand the Neva valley over to Genoa. The Clavesana keep is still up there on its knoll, with the stone village packed underneath.
Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena has 172 residents and is on the list of the Borghi più belli d'Italia. Along the cemetery road stands a sanctuary built in the shape of a heart; the Alta Via dei Monti Liguri passes through, climbing from here to the San Bernardo pass, 957 metres.
The patron is the Assumption of Mary and the feast falls on 15 August; the parish church of the Assunta stands just outside the old village, in its lower part, and its first building goes back to the fifteenth century.
Castelvecchio belongs to the Borghi più belli d'Italia circuit and in 2007 it was given the Orange Flag by the Italian Touring Club. On foot, from the main street, you can reach the castle of Zuccarello along the walk that tradition says Ilaria del Carretto used between the two strongholds, through olive groves and coppice woods.
Castello dei Clavesana · chiesa di Nostra Signora Assunta · santuario di Nostra Signora delle Grazie
Pesto alla Genovese
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Next up: Our Lady of the Assumption, patroness of a town disputed between Clavesana and Del Carretto, Sunday 15 August
Nearest airport: Genova, 66 km away
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📅 Every year, on 15 August
Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena celebrates Our Lady of the Assumption on 15 August; the town was a fief of the marquises of Clavesana and later the marquisal seat of the Del Carretto, who settled there after the marriage of Enrico Del Carretto and Caterina Clavesana.
📅 Every year, between July and September
A festival that lasts a whole summer — music, art, poetry and trekking, with concerts at dawn and Ligurian breakfast.
Castello dei Clavesana An eleventh-century Clavesana castle above the village, besieged in 1672 and private today. 
chiesa di Nostra Signora Assunta Twelfth-century parish church below the village: a walled-up medieval door and Cardinal Virtues on the vault. 
santuario di Nostra Signora delle Grazie The little church built on a heart-shaped plan, on the cemetery road: in the 1500s it was dedicated to San Ber Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena, but an easy day trip away.
