Founded in 1288 by the Commune of Albenga, which ringed it with walls to make it a defensive outpost on the eastern seashore, Borghetto took its name from the monastic hospice of Santo Spirito, established in the twelfth century. It was a fief of the Doria family and then came under the rule of the republic of Genoa in the first half of the fourteenth century. A few remains of the thirteenth-century walls have been incorporated into some of the town’s houses. The parish church of San Matteo, built at the beginning of the seventeenth century, has a campanile in the baroque style. It houses a wooden statue of St. Matthew by Maragliano, a statue of St. Mary of the Olivari, a painting of the Martyrdom of St. Matthew by G. Badracco which includes a seventeenth-century view of Borghetto Santo Spirito and another depicting the Martyrdom of St. Apollonia by D. Fiasella. The Borelli Castle at Capo Santo Spirito was built in the nineteenth century over a seventeenth-century monastery of the Minim Fathers and is surrounded by a splendid pine wood.