MONTEU ROERO
MONTEU ROERO – HISTORY
It is indicated in places name that the area was inhabited since the prehistory.
During the Roman period, the territory was crossed by a “strata”, controlled by a casteller nowadays disappeared.
In the Middle Ages, a lot of importance was given to the castle of Pulciano (disappeared since a lot of time), which during the Xcentury was the centre of a wide Alemannian land portfolio.
Monteu is mentioned in documents from 901 and 1065, with reference to possessions of the Church of Asti. In 1111 Oberto “de Monte Acuto”, lord of the castle faithful to the bishop, obtained by him the feudal rights when the top village was beginning its creation. During the half of that century, the lordship passed to the Biandrate family whose fortune, as we know, ended in 1290 when the dynasty was erased from Asti and was forced to sell all of its fiefs to the Roero family. Even in this case, the family of Asti kept the power until 1748, when Baldassarre Michele Roero, the last descendant sold the whole to Gromis of Trana.
POINTS OF INTEREST AND CURIOSITY
The Rocche, a 32 km fracture passing through the smooth landscape of Roero hills from Bra to Cisterna d’Asti. An unusual geological phenomenon due to the erosion which dated back to time immemorial but still continues nowadays and influences the life of man. In Monteu Roero the Rocche are the most typical landscape element: wild and structured as a labyrinth, with an origin always linked more to the myth than to the science.
A naturalistic heritage which can be discovered thanks to the Trails Network of Roero: ring routes which deepen the themes of the local cultural identity.
The medieval castle,was commissioned by castellers “de Monte Acuto”, vassals of the bishop of Asti, passed during the half of the XII century to Biandrate counts. According to ancient chronicles, during the winter of 1158, the emperor Federico Barbarossa spent there the winter period. The counts were defeated in Asti and sold the lordship in 1299 to Roero family, who transformed the castle into the local cradle of the dynasty, extending it according to different needs and from which the village took its name of Roero since the beginning of ‘400. A huge collapse reduced its buildings at the half of ‘500 and with the earthquake of 1887 the castle experienced other serious damages: for these reasons, the high donjon and some western structures were demolished. However, the remains still keep the exact dimension and the fascinating romantic and menacing feature of the past.
Churches. The parish of the concentric, dedicated to S. Nicolao, rose as an ‘oratory' at the limits of the most ancient part of the “villa”. In it, the local lords of Roero were buried from 1345 to ‘700, even if belonging to more than one generation. It was completely rebuilt, still oriented, from 1858 to 1861. At the beginning of the road which reaches the castle, near the disappeared lower portal of the “villa”, there is the church of S. Bernardino, already known as Church of White Disciplinants.
On the East part of Occhetti district, there is the hidden parish of S. Pietro di Novelle mentioned in 901, with jurisdiction over S. Stefano and Montaldo Roero, in an area of ancient settlements already subject to the enigmatic castle of Pulciano, disappeared since almost a millennium. The parish of S. Pietro, rebuilt, still oriented in 1929, is side by side to the 17th-century bell tower and to the rectory, partially built with squared stone segments of the ancient Romanic church.
