Monticello d'Alba
It is located in the central zone of the Roero area and it has a wonderful view dominated by the Counts Roero’s castle, and it’s characterized by a medieval old town and by a web of walks that lays out and reaches the adjacent municipalities.
BACKGROUND HISTORY
The municipality’s history is directly linked to the Roero’s family, who had Monticello as a fief in 1376 and in which they built the current castle, still inhabited today. The town’s origins go all the way back to the ancient Romans. We don’t have much information related to the Medieval Age, while it’s known that since 1241 the town switched from the protection of the Asti’s bishop to the one of the Malabaila’s family. In 1250 the town was destroyed after the wars between Alba and Asti, later on rebuilt in order to become property of the Roero’s family, event that happened in 1376 at the request of Pope Gregory XI.
MUST SEE:
THE CASTLE. It is considered the most massive and well- preserved castle among the medieval ones in Piedmont. Located in an amazing elevated position, it’s been rebuilt by the will of the Malabaila’s family between 1342 and 1348, with two full-height towers, battlements and a walkway patrol. After becoming property of the Roero’s family (to whom it still belongs now-a-days) it suffered a few restructuring changes, keeping the fascinating medieval aspect.
S. PONZIO. It is a church rebuilt in the seventeenth century that preserves the bell tower from the 1300s.
PARISH CHURCH OF SAINT PONZIO. Located in the village Villa’s cemetery, it is a very ancient parish church dedicated to Saint Ponzio, that preserves the roman remains and proto-romantic frescoes from the first half of the eleventh century.
