Apricale is an Italian village in the province of Imperia in the Liguria region in Italy. The village belongs to the category of "Most Beautiful Italian Villages". Its origin seems to date back to the Bronze Age. Officially, the village was founded in the 10th century by the Counts of Ventimiglia. In 1276 it passed to the Doria Lord, then to marquis of Dolceacqua, located about fifteen kilometers away. In 1267, the village acquired a status, among the oldest in Liguria, and became a "free commune". In 1573, the Grimaldis of the principality of Monaco destroyed the castle built by the Dorias. As part of the Marquisate of Dolceacqua, dependent on the County of Nice, Apricale was annexed to France in 1793 and attached to the canton of Perinaldo, in the Alpes-Maritimes. At the fall of the First Empire, the commune returned to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (1815) then to the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
