CANALE
Heart of Roero hills, Canale enchants with its ancient wine-cellars and its many historical small shops.
The historical centre preserves the ancient structure of the "villanova" (characterized by orthogonal streets and arcades along the main road) that the Municipality of Asti created in 1260 to conduct the population of the small villages around, destroyed after a local war against Biandrate Counts. In 1379 Canale is donated to the Roero family of Asti, and in the 1512 to the Malabaila.
A municipal tower of the Thirteenth century is what remains of the medieval defensive wall that enclosed the town.
Canale, due to its strategic position, has always been a natural commercial centre. One of its traditional activities is the production of wine: at the beginning of Twentieth Century, to react to serious illness of the grapes, the agricolture turned into a intensive peach cultivation.
In that period Canale was called the town of Pesco (peach), because of a daily market dedicated only to peaches and an important worldwide exportation.
Nowadays peach cultivations are strongly reduced in favor of viticulture, to plant nebbiolo vines, that make the Roero DOCG wine, and a typical white vine called Arneis, that produces the Roero Arneis DOCG.
WHAT TO SEE:
- ARCADES. Have a walk in the historical centre, to visit all the small shops under the arcades.
- CASTLE. Built by the Roero family between 1319 and 1390, enlarged in the 16th century and finally modified by the Malabaila family during the 18th century, it is now an elegant private building.
- SAN VITTORE. Parish church, enlarged in the years between 1696 and 1825, it has a nice baroque façade built in 1726.
- SAN BERNARDINO. Churh of the Confraternity of the “Disciplinanti” (also named “Battuti Bianchi”), it was rebuilt in its present baroque form between 1727 and 1763. The interior was completely restored just in 2013.
- SAN GIOVANNI. These one was instead the Church of the Confraternity of the “Battuti Neri”; it was built in baroque form between 1708 and 1714. The 13th century bell-tower is all thet remais of the ancient town walls. The church was restored to mark the 750th anniversary of the town’s foundation.
- MADONNA DI LORETO. Rebuilt in the mid 17th century, inside there are only traces of a 15th century fresco.
