A commune situated in the upper valley of the Bormida di Pallare, its origins are uncertain. It appears to have been mentioned for the first time in 1549, in some deeds with which Marchese Alfonso Del Carretto, lord of Finale, granted certain privileges to the inhabitants. It then came under Spanish rule and was transferred to the republic of Genoa in 1713. It was almost destroyed during Napoleon’s campaign of 1796. The parish church of San Giorgio, on a polygonal plan with a façade set forward of the central block, was built in the eighteenth century. It houses decorations and frescoes. The Benedictine abbey of Fornelli (now converted into a private residence) is a much older building, dating from 1179. The ancient game of pallone elastico, a kind of handball, is still played in a special court of recent construction.