Altitude: 150 m a.s.l.
Area: 25 sq km
Distance from Imperia: 31 km
Inhabitants: in 1881: 1400 - in 2017: 159
Patron Saint Day: April 25th - San Marco Evangelista
Information: Municipality phone 0183 31061
The characteristics of the urban pattern and of the building complex that mark the village denote a relatively recent structure of the settlement, which is directly confirmed by the absence of monuments or relevant testimonies of the medieval period.
The origin of the present town is in fact attributable to the displacement of numerous families from the hilltop villages to the valley bottom, driven by new economic opportunities offered during the late medieval centuries by the ever more consistent development of the roads towards the cities of Lower Piedmont and by the exploitation, then in the phase of further expansion, of hydraulic energy through the use of mills, workshops and ironworks.
Formerly the domain of the Marquises of Clavesana, Borghetto D'Arroscia was purchased in 1512 by the Republic of Genoa; it has always been one of the fifteen districts of Pieve di Teco, of which it has followed the fortunes.
Visit of the town
Returning to the Provincial Road and continuing towards Albenga you’ll soon find the proto-Romanesque church of San Pantaleo on the right side of the road, built around the year 1000 and remodeled in the fifteenth century, which is the most significant monument of the valley.
Particularly interesting is the arcade that protects its right side, entirely decorated with frescoes attributed to the Master of San Pantaleo; paved in white and black pebbles, it is supported by two stone columns, of which the one on the left has sculpted in the capital guardian wizards surmounted by delicate spiral motifs. Other guardian wizards, guarding on the side of the road, are carved in the capital of the column, a larger one yet otherwise identical to the others, which is placed there.
The arcade, which the stupidity of idiotic graphomaniacs has forced to close with a sturdy gate, has cross vaults, of which the one on the right preserves in the center a stone tondo carved in an Agnus; it ends on the right on a carved stone shelf under which is affixed the original stone holy-water font, carved with the Maltese cross.
Under the arcade, on the left, there is a first portal with an architrave of 1493 carved with an Agnus among stylized angels of surprising modernity; on the adjacent window, through which you can see the interior decorated with frescoes by Pietro Guidi da Ranzo and the Master of San Pantaleo, the architrave is carved in a Gothic Trigram in a tondo with oblique flames between elaborate floral motifs; the portal on the right finally has a bas-relief of 1491 carved with a Trigram in the center in a tondo supported by angels, on the left an angel with cartouche and on the right San Pantaleo between a bookstand surmounted by a dove and an elaborate kneeling stool.
On the simple façade there are two small now walled lancet-windows and two other very small ones open on the two round apses.
The eighteenth-century parish church of San Marco Evangelista, decorated on the façade with a fresco of the saint, preserves inside a stone baptismal font equal to that of Vessalico; to the left of the church is the simple coeval oratory.
Going back a hundred meters along the Provincial Road you can go down the ramp on the left that leads to the suggestive medieval bridge, with its arch resting on Romanesque structures, which you have already seen goin up to Ubaga. Returning to the Provincial Road 453 you can continue to Vessalico.