A fortified medieval town in the valley of the Neva. Founded in 1248 by the people of the valley and the marchesi di Clavesana, it was hotly contested owing to its strategic position. Ceded to the Del Carretto, it was made the center of one of their marquisates and then sold to the Savoy in 1625, even though Genoa had been claiming a preemptive right to it since 1575. Confiscated by the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand II, it was put up for auction and acquired by Genoa, under whose rule it remained. The town, dominated by the ruins of the Del Carretto castle, retains the typical architectural structure of lower Piedmont, with streets porticoed on both sides. The humpbacked medieval bridge is the most interesting in western Liguria. The parish church of San Bartolomeo has a Romanesque campanile. Zuccarello was the birthplace of Ilaria Del Carretto, wife of the lord of Lucca, whose tomb has become one of the main attractions of that city. The area’s agricultural products are olives, fruit and vegetables.