This town belonged to the Del Carretto and Clavesana families until the fourteenth century, when Giovanni di Saluzzo, marquis of Clavesana, sold part of his territories to Genoa. Only a few ruins can now be seen of the impressive Clavesana castle that once dominated Ranzo from the western highland.
Known for the genuinely superior quality of its oil and for the production of Pigato white wine, the town has an admirable artistic heritage and a monumental church, the church of San Pantaleo, lying at the foot of the castle. It is of early Romanesque origin, remains of which can be seen in the eleventh-century apse, which is flanked by a late mediaeval apse. The black-stone portico is decorated with fifteenth-century frescoes and has sculpted portals from the Cenova school which are also from the fifteenth century. The interior is frescoed by artists from the Ligurian school. A fine poliptych dating from 1544 showing the Virgin Mary with Saints James and Philip is preserved in the sanctuary of the Madonna delle Vigne, while another one showing the Virgin Mary, attributed to Schiaffino, is kept in the sanctuary of the Madonna della Misericordia.
The parish church of San Bernardo and the adjacent oratory dominate the municipal district of Costa Becelega, which stands on a crest running down from Monte Aquila. Inside the church of Nostra Signora dell'Assunta, built by the Benedictines in the eleventh century and restructured in Baroque times, you can admire the frescoes that decorate the small fifteenth-century suspended portico. Ranzo is a good place to taste snails and go fishing in the Arroscia River. Pietro Guido and his son Giorgio, both fine painters, were born in Ranzo.
