Medieval village and fortress of Turin, Italy

The Medieval Village of Turin is an open-air museum that stands along the banks of the Po river, in the Valentino park in Turin. Entering it, through the drawbridge, means traveling through time and space, abandoning the city of the 21st century to find a moment of serenity among arcades, fountains, artisan shops, gardens and a castle from the height of its imposing bulk.

The visit of the medieval village can be divided into two parts: the first, open access, concerns the lower part of the village, almost at the level of the river, while the second, with a paid ticket, leads to the castle and the garden. The visit of the village can vary in duration depending on the attention with which the details of the houses along the road and the courtyards are observed, the interest in the craftsmanship of the shops, of the desire to sit and watch the popular video present in the projection room.

Turin’s Borgo Medievale, or medieval village, was opened in 1884 to mark the occasion of the Italian General Exhibition. It offers a reconstruction of late medieval buildings and decorations carried out on the basis of strict philological criteria. A number of intellectuals, historians, artists and technicians took part in the project which was coordinated by the architect Alfredo D’Andrade.

The designers drew inspiration from over 40 sites and retraced the artistic and architectural features of 15th-century buildings throughout Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, some of which have now disappeared. Located in the Parco del Valentino, a large park running along the banks of the Po, the Borgo Medievale is unquestionably a popular attraction at all times of year. The village includes streets, squares, fountains, fortifications, decorations and frescoes, real houses and artisans’ workshops, where visitors can watch metal and paper being worked and buy artefacts of various kinds.

The Rocca or fortress is the highpoint of the tour through the village. It is a fortified aristocratic residence whose rooms are richly decorated with furniture, accessories and fabrics that reflect the lifestyle of the nobility in 15th-century Piedmont. A more recent addition, since 1998, are the medieval gardens featuring plants that would have been grown at the time, as well as local botanical species. The plants were identified through extensive bibliographical and iconographic research and are now cared for using organic methods.

The Borgo Medievale has become a very special visitor attraction and museum that responds to a number of requirements: research, popular history, entertainment, tourist attraction. Moreover, a range of events is offered that reflect these different visitor categories.

Characteristics
The buildings of the village take up buildings from the 15th century. The village is, in fact, more similar to an archaeological-monumental site and was born inside the Valentino park as a pavilion for the Italian general exhibition which took place in Turin from April to November 1884. Intended for demolition at the end of the Italian General Exhibition, it became a civic museum in 1942.

It is a fairly faithful reproduction of a typical late medieval village in which they are rebuilt on a single street: houses, churches, squares, fountains and decorations of the time, surrounded by palisades walls and fortifications and dominated by a fortress. It is accessed from Viale Virgilio through a tower-gate with a drawbridge, from Viale Enrico Millo at the embarkation point for the boat from the staircase of the Rivoli gate and also from Viale Enrico Millo from the driveway near the entrance of the Ex- San Giorgio restaurant. In the village there are also craft shops since 1884. In 1884 the village housed the workshops of the potter, the weaver, the apothecary, the carpenter and the blacksmith. An illustrated guided tour is presented in detail in the catalog of the Universal Exhibition in the History of Art section.

History
The medieval village of Turin is one of the most significant products of a cultural trend, the nineteenth-century neo-medieval style, which, although with different shapes and purposes, has left important evidence throughout Europe in architecture, the arts, literature and taste and which he had particular luck in Turin and Piedmont. The interest in the Middle Ages, already alive in the eighteenth century, took on new meanings with the Restoration when the European courts, also as a response to the Enlightenment condemnation, sought in the middle age the legitimization of their own power; in this climate king Carlo Felice di Savoia, to enhance the history of the family and underline its authoritativeness over the centuries, started (1824) the reconstruction of the Abbey of Hautecombe in Savoy. (Freely adapted from Renato Bordone,Shallot’s mirror. The invention of the Middle Ages in nineteenth century culture, Naples, 1993).

The medieval village is a unique case within the Turin artistic panorama, more similar to an archaeological or monumental site than to a museum in the strict sense formed by incremental collections. In fact the complex was not born as a museum, but as a pavilion of the Italian general artistic and industrial exhibition, which took place in Turin from April to November 1884. While the Rocca, the castle, was built to last over time, the village it was intended for demolition once the demonstration had ended. The enormous success obtained by the complex meant that it was purchased by the City of Turin at the end of the event, becoming part of the Civic Museums only much later (administrative papers say since 1942) and, since 2003, of the Turin Museums Foundation.

On April 26, 1884, the Italian general artistic and industrial exhibition opened in Turin in the Parco del Valentino. It was in the wake of the great events of international scope, which intended to promote industrial production still in its infancy in Italy. The models were the London Exhibition of 1851 and the Paris Exhibition of 1878. These were large events that benefited from public funding and that blended the characters of the traditional fair-market with those of the presentation of new products, and those of the exhibition.

These events, aimed essentially at the future, at innovation, at international level exchanges, were however always accompanied by pavilions or structures that illustrated the artistic and architectural production of past centuries and of the most varied civilizations. Turin experienced the expectation of the 1884 exhibition with great expectations of economic rebirth for a city that had lost the role of capital for two decades and was looking for a new identity. The success of the initiative was remarkable and it contributed to the presence of a very particular “pavilion”: the medieval village and fortress.

The Turin Exhibition proposed to offer an artistic-architectural section; for this purpose the Section of Ancient Art was established, an interdisciplinary commission made up of writers, historians, artists, architects, archivists, experts in art objects, who began to meet in January 1882, under the presidency of Ferdinando Scarampi of Villanova, to develop a pavilion project. The works accelerated and turned from May 1882, when Alfredo D’Andrade joined the Commission, wealthy Portuguese scholar of Italian architecture, especially medieval architecture.

The idea of a pavilion that resumed architectural styles from different eras and regions of Italy was definitively abandoned, in favor of a project that was based on a single century (the fifteenth century) and a single cultural territory (the Aosta Valley and Piedmont). Thus began the preliminary research for the construction of the medieval village, consisting of a village and a turreted castle. Product of invention as a whole, every architectural, decorative and furnishing element of the Borgo is reproduced with philological precision from original models of the XV century, traceable at the time in Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, detected and personally studied by the members of the Commission.

The singular realization of the Medieval Village was a product of the positivist culture prevailing in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, but it also reflected the attention to the ancient artifact, to the material culture of the Middle Ages, of which Alfredo D’Andrade and Vittorio Avondo (also a member of the Commission) had already given evidence in the recovery and restoration of some Valle d’Aosta castles, in particular that of Issogne, purchased by Avondo in 1872. The immense work of finding and reproducing the modelsit proceeded at an accelerated pace: on 12 December 1882 the first stone of the Rocca (the castle) was laid, on 6 June 1883 the first stone of the village was laid, on 27 April 1884 the Borgo was inaugurated in the presence of the sovereigns of Italy, Umberto and Margherita di Savoia.

The fortress could be visited inside and its fully furnished rooms reproduced a stately home of the fifteenth century; the houses in the village were little more than theatrical scenes, except for the Casa di Avigliana, which housed the ticket office and offices, and for the Casa di Borgofranco, where the tavern with the adjacent San Giorgio restaurant was set. Under the arcades opened the craft shops, entrusted to companies of national level, which were examples of high tradition in the processing of ceramics, wood, iron and which realistically animated the village road.

The medieval village lies naturally on the banks of the Po; the atmosphere that reigns among its houses is magical and, at the same time, familiar, everything is designed to appear absolutely “true”. Great care and expertise were placed in the choice of construction details and all the tricks were put in place to receive the visitor and put him in a different world than the surrounding environment (in 1884 the General Exposition, later the Valentino Park).

The only road in the village develops in a zigzag fashion to appear longer and always offer new glimpses to the visitor; the clucking of the fountain located very close to the drawbridge marks an acoustic break for those entering the village; the shopsthey give the illusion of a living, lived village. Many discussions were ignited within the Commission about whether or not to insert costumed characters or mannequins into the Rocca, so much so as to recreate the illusion of “true”. The intent to create a picturesque and illusory place was not the only purpose that the creators of the Borgo set themselves, on the contrary. Their aims were primarily didactic, educational, to protect the historical and artistic heritage of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley. In particular – as we read in the Catalog- was interested in demonstrating what a style is (specifically the Gothic style) and how it permeated all aspects of the material life of an era; safeguard the quality of traditional craftsmanship; focus attention on an architectural and decorative heritage of the foothills, which already at the time felt threatened by the rapid changes brought about by industrial production.

The appreciation of the Borgo by the public was immense and uninterrupted. Not so his critical luck. Until the 1930s, the purposes for which the Borgo was built were still perfectly understood and shared by the Turin cultural environment. Equally the architectural techniques and the processing of the materials implemented in the Borgo were still in tune with those followed by the Turin artisans and decorators of the years between the two wars.

Attitudes changed after the Second World War. In view of the significant damage deriving from the bombing (the southern part of the village was hit, with the consequent destruction of part of the fortress and the house of Ozegna), the hypothesis of the demolition of the village was later aired, then fortunately abandoned. The aims and purposes that had guided the creators were no longer understood and the Borgo was increasingly interpreted as a ” 1981 marks a turnaround. It is in fact the year of the exhibition ” Alfredo D’Andrade. Protection and restoration “, the first significant sign of the renewed interest of critics in Piedmontese neo-mediaevalism in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Starting from this date, the Borgo finds its rightful place in the cultural panorama of the city, also thanks to its targeted use as the seat of events and events and the resumption of intense editorial and cultural activity. Today, the Borgo can be considered an open-air museum which sees over 500,000 people pass through it annually. Of these, over 50,000 visit the Rocca and the Garden, whose entrance is regulated by the issue of a paid ticket. The Borgo is, several times during the year, the site of temporary outdoor exhibitions and in the exhibition hall, hidden behind the facade of the church: these too, related to issues such as the city of Turin,

On the only road that runs through the village there are some shops that are the heirs of the craft activities introduced in the Borgo since 1884. The presence of the shops was aimed at enhancing traditional quality craftsmanship at a time when the process of industrialization jeopardized its survival. At the inauguration of the Borgo there were the workshop of the potter, the weaver, the apothecary, the carpenter, the blacksmith, the coppersmith, the workshop where artistic objects were reproduced, the “Osteria all’usanza antica” (with medieval food) and “the Osteria all’usanza modern” (with contemporary foods). In addition to the shops, in the months of opening of the 1884 Exhibition there were also shops selling products, to imitate the life of a real medieval village. And, in fact, the shopkeepers and artisans were dressed in period costumes. Today there are the blacksmith’s and printer’s shops, as well as a souvenir shop. Work is underway to install a bar and restaurant.

The construction of the Borgo was completed by the Commission in charge with the drafting of a specific catalog released at the same time as the Exhibition and entitled: Official Catalog of the History of Art Section. Illustrated guide to the feudal castle of the XV century, printed by the Bona typography of Turin. The catalog is not a guide in the strict sense but rather a study and in-depth tool that provides interpretative keys to the complex. It is made up of three sections which are authored by three members of the Commission: Giuseppe Giacosa, Alfredo D’Andrade and Pietro Vayra respectively.

Giacosa wrote the Introduction, in which he analyzed the more general and profound reasons that led to the creation of the Borgo. Alfredo D’Andrade was the author of the chapter on Factories : here are the reasons that led to the choice of each building and each architectural element, also analyzing the models from which they were drawn and the construction methods used. Finally Pietro Vayra wrote of La rocca, examining the furnishings and furnishings of the castle and analytically dealing with the models and documentary sources that were the basis of their realization. The anastatic reprint of the catalog is now available at the ticket office of the medieval village.

The Village
Inside the crenellated walls, beyond the drawbridge, the buildings of the Borgo follow one another along the main road, in an extremely suggestive path. They reproduce Piedmontese and Valle d’Aosta buildings, juxtaposed to form a inhabited nucleus animated by artisan shops. From the fountain to the roof of the bread oven, from the farrier’s laboratory, to the Hospice to welcome pilgrims. A paper mill is set up under the portico of the Casa di Bussoleno, where the ancient knitted pile frays the rags for paper. An exhibition hall has been set up behind the facade of the church for a few years, where temporary exhibitions and displays are offered to the public at certain times.

Avigliana house
This elegant residence owes its name to the house of the Porta Ferrata in Avigliana, whose facade, which survived the collapse and is still preserved today, is identified as a model. The sides added to the house derive instead from a house in Carignano. The façade is characterized on the ground floor by two large arches with decorated capitals, comparable with specimens of S. Antonio di Ranverso and Avigliana, by a beautiful terracotta string course and, on the upper floor, by two mullioned windows bordered by small palmettes.

On the ground floor, the main door gave access in 1884 to the shop destined for the sale of artistic objects, while the smaller door opened onto the darkroom cabinet used by the photographer Ecclesia, who had a photo kiosk at the entrance of the village. Before 1894, the smaller room was used as the Rocca ticket office, while the shop was used for the sale of copper, iron, bronze and brass objects.From 1958 the ticket office occupied the entire ground floor, with access from the largest door, while following the 2009 restorations, access takes place through the door on the left. Since 1892, the first floor housed the office of the overlying Borgo (preceding the director), which was joined by administrative offices around 1999; since 2003 these rooms have been used only as archives and libraries in the village. On the second floor, instead, he housed one of the guardians from 1893; in 1996 the need for service staff led to the construction of bathrooms and changing rooms, which are still located here.

Borgofranco house
Built in bricks framed by wooden frames, according to the now disappeared examples of Borgofranco and Borgomasino in Canavese, it stands on three sturdy pillars of stones. The wooden framework is characteristic of many medieval buildings in the Susa valley.

The second floor protrudes further onto the first and is open as a loggia on the right side. Curious and of particular charm are the painted tablets between the shelves under the overhang of the first floor, bearing coats of arms and cherubs. Equally interesting is the fact that the roof of the house was kept in straw, a very widespread solution in the fifteenth century for housing.

First house in Bussoleno
The Susa Valley has been the subject of extensive studies by the creators of the Borgo for its constant circulation of materials and construction techniques throughout the Middle Ages. The meeting between the brick, typical of the plain, and the wooden materials used in the upper valley is testified by this building, which is inspired by the one, still existing, of the Aschieri house in Bussoleno.

Along the main road the sub-portico, set on solid stone columns, constitutes a valuable carpentry work. The side that overlooks the square is built as access to the house: the masonry staircase leads to the upper floor, and the two openings below pretend the entrance to the cellar and the pigsty. Above the two decorated windows, which bear the coat of arms of the Aschieri family in the tympanum, the festive Danza dei Folli is reproduced, copied from the facade of a tavern in Lagnasco, in the province of Cuneo, ruined shortly after the construction of the Borgo.

In 1884 the ground floor of the house was occupied by the pottery shop, which also used the adjacent room in the house of Frossasco as a warehouse, and whose products were cooked in the oven inside the Torre d’Alba. Since 1894 the blacksmith, with a workshop in the Albergo dei Pellegrini, set up his own shop here, also occupying the rooms on the first floor and those of the adjoining home. In the 1930s, the glass shop was located on the ground floor and under the stairs; in the sixties the wrought iron workshop was joined by that of wood and inlay. Today the first floor is used as a home for the blacksmith who has his own shop on the ground floor;

Chieri house
The marked fifteenth-century character is characteristic of the model, a residential complex of the Villa family, known in Flanders for its banking activity. The building, taken from the ancient Ghetto of Chieri, ends at the top with a decorative battlements and is simple and severe, with only the tympanums of the windows decorated with family crests. From the inner part of the courtyard on the first and second floors there are two wooden balconies (the lobias) and on the ground floor there are two doors and a window. Curious is the small opening in the lower left, below the mullioned window, which pretends to brighten the cellars.

This building is joined to the Casa di Pinerolo by an arm similar to a sort of overpass surmounted by two battlements, with a small window on the first floor and an arch with gate on the ground floor, which acts as access to the courtyard. The rooms on the upper floors were built from the outset from the outset: in 1884 they were the only ones inhabited by a family, while public toilets were placed on the ground floor. From 1927 tenants were the managers of the San Giorgio restaurant, closed since 2004 and currently under restoration; in 1979 a cooperative requested, together with some premises in the Casa di Alba, a space for the workshop for weaving leather,

Church
The “religious” building of the Borgo is the most striking example of the abundant work that the builders of the complex carried out between 1882 and 1884. Originally, the church was a simple theatrical backdrop, limited to the single façade, composed according to different models – as many as seven – assembled together. In the general lines we find the proportions of the old parish church of Verzuolo near Saluzzo; the slender gimberga of the gate derives from San Giovanni di Ciriè; the terracotta cornice repeats that of San Giorgio in Valperga in the Canavese, from which the window on the left side is also copied; the six terracotta spiers or pinnacles that dominate the building are covered by a cone-shaped roof and also derive from Cirie.

The dedication of the church to the Madonna is revealed in the presence of the terracotta reproduction of the original stone of the Madonna del Melograno on the portal of the collegiate church of Santa Maria della Scala in Chieri. The Annunciation is represented in the tympanum of the door, in which the figure Mary, taken from Piobesi, and the angel, from Piossasco. The great Saint Christopher with the Child Jesus on his shoulder is taken from a fresco of the old church of Verzuolo; the San Bernardo with the devil in chains has its model in San Giorgio in Valperga; Sant’Antonio Abate was copied from the parish church of Piossasco and the two female figures, representing Santa Dorotea and Santa Caterina, are imitations of paintings from the Strambino Castle.

In the 60s it was decided to give a body to this facade by building a modest environment set up like a real church. Since 2005 this space has been used as an exhibition hall.

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Courtyard and Tower of Avigliana
The courtyard of the Osteria represents the only example of the internal courtyard of the Borgo and derives from a similar space present in Avigliana, dominated by the clock tower. This space is delimited by the houses of Chieri and Pinerolo and by an L-shaped factory, with open galleries, taken from Avigliana, at whose meeting the arms rises the tower. From the courtyard there was access to the kitchen of the tavern, housed in 1884 in the house of Mondovì, to the shop of the house of Pinerolo and to the tavern itself through the portico.

In the center of the courtyard the well comes from Dronero and is authentic, unique in the Borgo: octagonal in shape with a circular base decorated only with two coats of arms on the top. The tower, inside which a staircase is inserted, is white with brick red frames and white and black shelves. This courtyard served as an entrance to the Osteria di San Giorgio. Just the tavern was signposted through a large sign placed next to the wooden gate. Spacious rooms were assigned to the tavern from the beginning: a room on the ground floor, which was accessed from the courtyard and a loggia on the upper floor open onto the river, which was accessed from the internal staircase to the tower.

Cuorgnè house
The portico of one of the most spectacular buildings on the main road is inspired by the Casa in Cuorgnè known as the King Arduino, an example of housing for wealthy families of fifteenth-century Piedmont. The rich frame that separates the floors (the string course), made up of four rows of printed bricks: oak leaves and acorns, a twisted cord, arches and coats of arms, and a series of putti with clasped hands The top floor is highlighted by the wooden balcony, a copy of a very rare example of Carignano. The ceiling of the portico is decorated on the example of the Castello di Rivara, with colored coats of arms, similar to those of the tympanum of Canavese-inspired windows.

One of the peculiar aspects of this house is the presence of a sequence of shops open in the porch, in memory of which the apothecary’s sign still remains, which had a shop there, next to the weaver, in 1884. Three years later the shops were they have been replaced by the ceramic warehouse and the shop for wines and spirits. On the occasion of the 1911 Exhibition, the bookbinding was rebuilt here, flanked since 1946 by the glass shop and subsequently by the ceramic shop. The upper floors were used as an artistic study and as a caretaker’s home. Today on the ground floor we find the gift shop on the left and the refreshment point on the right, the printer’s laboratory on the first floor and the caretaker’s former accommodation on the second floor.

Frossasco house
Inspired by a building still preserved in Frossasco in the Pinerolo area, it expresses the commercial and artisan vocation in the large porch on the ground floor, while the bright mullioned windows on the first floor underline its residential function. The colors, both of the construction materials and of the coverings, characterize the building; in particular, on the tympanums of the mullioned windows the Eternal Father is painted on the left with an ermine-lined mantle and on the right a white disk with the name of Jesus. On the ground floor the left door leads inside the house, while the other is always was the opening of the shop. In 1884 this space was used as a warehouse for the ceramic workshop, located in the adjacent Prima Casa di Bussoleno; from 1894 the shop passed to the blacksmith, who lived in the premises on the first floor. At the end of the 1930s a shop for the sale of terracotta vases and figurines is documented here, which in 1945 was flanked by the workshop for the restoration of antique furniture. Until the early 2000s the ground floor was still occupied by the wood shop; the first floor is still used today as a private home.

Malgrà house
This house, whose facade overlooks the Po river, recalls architecture of Po origin and takes its name for the red and white band paintings copied from the Malgrà Castle near Rivarolo Canavese. Singular is the wooden stage that rests on trident beams; at the top the house ends with a crenellation that protrudes slightly, and which has a notch that resembles that of the Porta di Rivoli: the two central merlons bear the Savoy and San Martino coats of arms painted. On the ground floor the door next to the window with railing led to the back of the wood carver, already replaced in 1894 by the customs guards; the rooms on the upper floor, rented from 1930 to the San Giorgio restaurant, have been closed since 2004.

Mondovì house
An imposing and austere Mondovì palace, the fourteenth-century residence of the Bressani family, was used as a model for this building in the Borgo, reduced here by one floor higher than the original. On the first floor, the two three-light windows alternate with three small smaller windows; the top floor is marked by a continuous wooden balcony, covered by a sort of roof over which the building ends with battlements. The openings on the ground floor are covered by a pergola with poles and shelves, enriched with plants. In 1884 the tavern kitchen was located here, on whose access door the remains of a bear hung, in homage to the tradition of displaying the fruit of dangerous hunts. After the exhibition a sculptor established the studio here and, subsequently, a liquor and wine shop was found. From 1918, the first floor was the headquarters of the Subalpine Historical Society, which was later joined by the caretaker’s home. In the late 90s the premises were used as offices; repurchased from the restaurant, they are currently being restored.

House of Ozegna
The corner building, the last of the buildings on the left side of the square, is characterized by a Renaissance breath, underlined by the quadripartite cross windows and by a lively chromatism. Freely inspired by the late fifteenth-century renovation of the Ozegna Castle, it proposes the rich color decoration of the Manta Castle, near Saluzzo; the building, located at the exit of the Borgo towards the Po, has exposed bricks and has on all sides windows decorated with terracotta reliefs and brightly colored paintings. At the right end stands the coat of arms of the San Martino.

The most interesting part of this building is the Po side, borrowed from the castles of Rivara, Ozegna and Settimo Torinese: on the ground floor, beyond the portico, there was a large hall used as a room of the San Giorgio restaurant, intended for a short period (1912-1927) to host the regional museum of architecture, and then again used as a dining room from the thirties until 2004, the year in which the restaurant was closed. The ongoing restoration will bring the structure back to its original splendor, highlighting the beauty of the capitals of the colonnade and the sub-arches, allowing tourists to enjoy a spectacular outdoor terrace softened by a large wisteria.

Hotel of the Pilgrims
As soon as you cross the tower – gate of Oglianico, the Albergo dei Pellegrini appears on the left, a typical building used as a stopover for travelers, spread along the itineraries of medieval Europe. The structure is divided by a string course with intertwined arches and saw teeth; on the lower floor there is a portico, while on the upper floor two mullioned windows are on display. The facade, plastered and painted, is derived from examples from Avigliana and Saluzzo; the two basins glazed on the lunettes draw inspiration from the bell tower of S. Antonio di Ranverso. The pictorial part is completed by a painting depicting San Vito from Piossasco and the coats of arms of San Rocco and Monferrato. A glazed polyptych with pilgrim and Franciscan saints, placed in the sub-portico, derives from a model preserved on the facade of a hotel in Capriata d’Orba, now disappeared. Curious is the pole that protrudes alongside the house, intended to hang clothes and copied from models found in Saluzzo.

The left door still allows access to the upper floor, where the Casa della Didattica has been housed since 2007. From the right door in 1884 you entered the blacksmith’s shop. In the 1930s the Autonomous Fascist Federation of the Artisans of Italy entrusted the premises to the carpenter, who set up the wood shop. From 1967 the studio of a painter was housed here and from 1972 at the beginning of the nineteenth century the potter destined the premises as a pottery shop.

House of Pinerolo
This building originates from the monumental House of the Senate of Pinerolo, home of the Princes of Acaja, a fifteenth-century model from which also the shops on the ground floor covered with canopies and the rich frames of the windows and the band that divides the floors derive. Part of the terracotta decorations derive from models visible also in the Cathedral of Chieri and in Sant’Antonio di Ranverso near Avigliana. Of the first side you meet, it is interesting to observe the only opening in the corner of the top floor, characterized by the particular shape, and the ceramic image of the Madonna and Child with angels.

The internal side of the courtyard shows several openings, although characterized by the presence on the two upper floors of wooden balconies supported by carved modiglioni. On the main street, the façade has two rectangular windows on the first floor, between which the Pinerolo coat of arms is painted, and two mullioned windows decorated with the same coat of arms in the tympanum, on the second floor. Always copied from Pinerolo are the casts of two genuflected statues, resting on shelves, which are on the sides of the first floor: the announcing Angel and the Virgin Mary. The originals of these beautiful terracottas are now in the Civic Museum of Ancient Art in Turin.

The two shops on the ground floor were, in 1884, closed because they were intended for innkeepers’ warehouses; from the following year they were used as a shop for wines and spirits, while the upper floor was rented to the San Giorgio restaurant.

Tower of Alba
The tower of Alba, which stands imposingly between the roofs of the houses, takes as its reference models the tower of the capital city of the Langhe for the lower part, while, for the upper section, that of the castle of Verzuolo near Saluzzo. The entrance door, located on the opposite side of the main road, remains hidden. Before it was damaged by the earthquake of 1887, the tower, with a square plan, had a beautiful smokestack with decorated rod, weather vane and cross. In 1884 an oven was created on the ground floor for cooking ceramic objects produced and sold in the workshop of the Prima Casa di Bussoleno and kept in the warehouse in the Frossasco house. In 1946 the first floor was rented as an artistic studio, and since 1967 two rooms were used as a potter’s and ceramics workshop, passed into ownership and inserted in the Albergo dei Pellegrini. Today the oven no longer exists and the premises are used as educational warehouses and workshops.

Oglianico
The entrance to the village takes place through a tower, which faithfully follows the tower-gate of the shelter of Oglianico. The quadrangular building, made of stone masonry, has, at the top right, a crenellated brick tower with a triangular plan, the belfredo, for sighting the enemies. In the tower there are 2 openings, the entrance door and the post, which is a smaller door for pedestrians. Inward, the tower is open and divided into four levels by three wooden mezzanines, which in the Middle Ages would have been easily dismantled in the event of an enemy invasion, thus allowing the besieged to find escape in the upper floor. The last level, unlike the others, is closed by a wooden wall. Access to the two doors of the building is made possible thanks to two drawbridges with winch that climb over the moat.

The lower part of the tower is plastered and painted with a great wealth of pictorial decorations, which reproduce reproduce models taken from the Malgrà castle at Rivarolo Canavese and from the Porta Soprana in Genoa. Above is the scene of the Annunciation with, on one side, the Angel with a ribbon on which the greeting to the Virgin is written, while on the other side there is the Madonna with the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Below is the coat of arms of the counts of San Martino, ancient owners of the Malgrà castle, and a warrior on horseback to whom an angel gives his helmet. Between the two access doors of the tower is a wild man with a stick, homo salvaticus, a symbolic guardian placed to protect the town and a warning to those who entered to take on an “urban” attitude. Above the postern there is a shield supported by an angel, while the main door is surrounded by painted architectural elements that simulate stone ashlars. The two windows, like other buildings in the Borgo, are surrounded by white and red decorative bands.

Alba House
The house chosen as a model in Alba was already altered in 1883, 1 year before the inauguration of the Borgo, and the builders therefore resorted to further models: the protruding beams of the roof are inspired by examples from Alba and Asti; the decorative paintings come from Asti, Avigliana and Polonghera. On the right facade there is the terracotta coat of arms of the Pelletta family, a copy of the one preserved in Asti, while on the opposite side there is a fresco copied by Avigliana depicting two angels holding up a round with the sacred symbol flaming. The first floor is dominated by mullioned windows decorated with different coats of arms and varieties of birds with a human head, interspersed with smaller windows for venting the braziers and lighting the interior of the house.

On the ground floor, the arcades of the portico are joined half the height by a parapet; the ceiling of particular charm derives from a room on the ground floor of the house of the Villa in Chieri: it is richly carved and painted in grotesque. In 1884 the ground floor was used as a wood shop, until in 1911, on the occasion of the Exhibition, an artistic print shop was rebuilt here. From 1931 the first floor was occupied by a workshop for the weaving of carpets and partly used as a home, and in 1979 part of the premises used as a workshop for the weaving of leather, an activity partly carried out also at the Casa di Chieri. Today the upper floor is used as a private home, while the ground floor houses the book store and the artistic print shop.

The fortress
It constitutes the focal point, high compared to the Borgo route. It is the fortified stately home, with sumptuous rooms full of furniture, furnishings, fabrics, to show the uses of life of the fifteenth century. The armor, the weapons, the pastimes left in the men’s room of arms, the dining room, the kitchen, offer a truly “throbbing and speaking” idea of a 15th century Savoy castle. Beyond the throne room, where the Prodi and the Heroines parade, the bedroom is striking for the large canopy with the embroidered curtains; the chapel closes the path.

Lobby
Entrance room in the fortress, the atrium has access defended by a heavy wooden door covered outside with iron and by a gate operated by a winch on the upper floor. It is controlled by the soldiers in the men’s room of arms through two slits in the back wall, and by the guardians in the room above through a trap door open on the vault. A wooden portal fortified by nails, amplified in majesty by a wide splay in stone with an acute arch, leads to the internal courtyard: it is copied from the Verres castle, like the loopholes at the bottom of the room.

Courtyard
The internal courtyard of the fortress reproduces that of the castle of Fénis. It has a trapezoidal plan, dominated by a steep stone staircase with semicircular steps. The balconies of the first and second floors overlook it, with wooden balustrades and frescoed walls. Only the counter-façade wall differs from the model: it is decorated with painted coats of arms, representing the main noble families of fifteenth-century Piedmont: Savoy, Challant, Saluzzo Manta, Monferrato, San Martino. The courtyard is the real fulcrum of the castle, on which all reception or private rooms open; from the side stairs you go down to the prisons.

Dining room
The dining room, the most sumptuous environment of the castle, through a wooden compass that protects from the cold outside. On the elevation of the carved sideboards, fine pottery, embossed plates, figured aquamarines show the wealth of the lord to his guests. The coffered ceiling has panels painted with busts of gentlemen and women, animals, fruits, drôleries. Above runs a frieze with white rabbits and flowers, interrupted by the portrait of King Arduino. These decorations were copied from a hall in the castle of Strambino (Ivrea), now in ruins. The tables are trestles, to be easily dismantled and transported; the tablecloths are in white linen with blue decorations.

The dishes left by the diners are not numerous, since it is customary in the Middle Ages to use trays of food already cut using the same dishes in more than one guest. At the back of the room are the musicians who cheer the banquets at the castle, housed on a stage. This is masked by a fake tapestry with a tournament scene designed by Federico Pastoris inspired by the miniatures of the Roy Modus novel, a 14th century manuscript that belonged to the Dukes of Savoy. The cloth was painted in 1884 by Alessandro Vacca.

Kitchen
The castle kitchen provides meals for a large number of people: the gentlemen and their guests, but also the soldiers and servants. Very large, it is divided into two parts: the first, where you cook for the servants, serves as a pantry, with the game stick, the barrels of salted meat, the forms of cheese, the stia for poultry. In the second, separated by a wooden gate, cooking for the gentlemen, with large skewers in the fireplaces, refined pottery, spices and rare foods. Between the two areas there is a well, where you can directly draw water for washing and cooking and for the service of the whole castle. The environment, covered by high cross vaults, is copied from the fifteenth-century kitchens of the castle of Issogne, of the lords of Challant.

Big room of the men of arms
It is the place of residence of the guard soldiers. The room, copied from the Verres castle, is a long room covered by a barrel vault, with a beaten floor, heated by two large fireplaces at the ends. The soldiers’ beds, simple planks with straw and rustic blankets, are on one side, on the other planks and rough benches where the armed men eat, play, clean their weapons. The armor, helmets, drums and various weapons, from swords, to falcons, to crossbows, are placed on wooden racks.

Guardian room
It is a place of control and defense: it is located above the atrium, the only entrance to the castle. From here the guardian lowers the metal shutter to defend the door through a winch. In the event of an attack, the storm drains above the entrance allow the defenders to hit the besiegers who try to break through the door; an open trap door in the floor offers a further possibility of offense against those who managed to penetrate the castle. Without furniture if not a few seats, it painted trees on the walls with noble shields placed behind a viminata: the model for this decoration was copied to the castle of Manta (Saluzzo), where it was later washed out.

Baronial Antisala
It is the waiting place for those who must have an audience in the throne room. The walls are painted to imitate a fabric upholstery, on two sides there are benches from the top in carved walnut, copied from fifteenth-century furniture of the Issogne castle. The entrance door is equipped with a wooden compass, carved in parchments and intertwined with Gothic arches; the fireplace bears the coat of arms of the Challants, as in the Fénis castle. The ceiling also has a Valle d’Aosta model and is divided into thick squares decorated with a star in the center. The hall, as well as that of the throne and the bedroom, was seriously damaged during a bombing in 1943: all the fixed and mobile furnishings and decorations were redone after the war reproducing the original ones.

Baronial Hall
The imposing hall is the place where the lord receives ambassadors and knights and exercises justice and command. It reproduces the hall of the Manta castle of the lords of Saluzzo (Cuneo): they are the motto “Leit” repeated on the painted base and in the scrolls of the ceiling. On the right wall Heroes and Heroines of antiquity are depicted, guiding the lord’s work with his own example; opposite, a legend spread in the courtly culture, that of the fountain of youth.

Oratory
It has stone walls decorated with silk veils and is covered by a cross vault with figured shelves, copied from the choir of San Giovanni di Saluzzo. The small room is dedicated to the prayers of the gentlemen, who retire there in recollection for their prayers, accompanied only by a lady or a gentleman of the room. In front of the sacred image there is a kneeler carved in parchment, on the altar rests a book of hours.

Bedroom
Very large, the bedroom is a private setting, a place to stay for the castellana who entertains her with her ladies to read or embroider. It reproduces, in the ceiling painted with rosettes, in the large fireplace, in the plastic decoration of the matching doors – which lead to the oratory and the bridesmaid room -, the room called the King of France of the castle of Issogne. It has walls covered with silk upholstery with the Savoy motto and numerous furnishings: two carved chests to hold clothes and a sideboard for everyday objects, a round table and various seats. On the external wall opens the door to the latrine, masked by the tapestry, as it is found in an elegant room of the Verres castle.

Bridesmaid room
It houses the room lady, friend and help of the lady in her life in the castle. The environment is small in size, well furnished and decorated. The walls are painted in lozenges with the initials of King Arduino, according to a model copied from the Strambino castle. The clothes are stored in a chest at the bottom of the bed, as in the use of itinerant courts; on a carved cupboard rest the tools for spinning the linen and hemp: the spindle, the rabbit, a spinning machine. In the light of the window and near the heat of the large fireplace, the hand basin is placed, for the daily toilet. Like the baronial chamber, the room has a private toilet: a small room overhanging the moat of the castle, with a perforated seat.

Chapel
In the chapel all the inhabitants of the castle attend the celebrations: the lords near the altar, the servants at the back of the room, separated by a wooden gate, as in the chapel of the castle of Issogne. In the presbytery, the priest celebrates facing the altar, looking at the sacred image and reading the liturgical text in Latin on the illuminated missal. The walls and vault of the chapel are frescoed: on the sides the Annunciation and the Ascent of Christ to Calvary, in the vault the four Evangelists, all reproduced from one of the main monuments of the Piedmontese fifteenth century, the preceptory of S. Antonio di Ranverso.

On the presbytery, the cross vault is painted like a starry sky, with voluminous gilded and painted ribs and a keystone with the coat of arms of the Counts of Challant. To the right, the door of the sacristy and the walled washbasin have Gothic-style architectural frames, trod from the stone ones existing in the church of S. Giovanni di Saluzzo, as well as the ciborium on the opposite wall. In the same church the floor with white, green and blue square tiles was copied, studied by Alfredo D’Andrade also in the marquis chapel of the castle of Revello.

The garden
Through the roof of the siege weapons, you can access the Garden of delights, full of flowering plants, the Garden of “simple remedies”, cultivated with aromatic and medicinal herbs, and the Garden, with the shed for storing tools..

Built between 1997 and 2000, the garden is divided into three parts: the Garden of Earthly Delights, the noble part annexed to the castle with ornamental plants; the Giardino dei Semplici, with medicinal and useful plants, and the vegetable garden with fruit trees and vegetables. All the cultivated plants, as well as the furnishings and the structure of the garden, derive from studies carried out on treatises, miniatures and the main bibliographic and iconographic sources between 1000 and 1500.

The three areas are equipped with signs for autonomous visits and each year courses are proposed that deepen different categories of plants (food, cosmetics, exotic). The garden is managed according to natural cultivation methods (fertilization, tillage, treatments) and is equipped with a small nursery area for the conservation of many of the cultivated species, while the surplus plants are sold to the public.

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