Hello my friends, welcome to My Own Italy to discover Italy with my personal touch!
Our travel today is to
Piedmont,
in the picturesque village of Monastero Bormida where we expected a fascinating castle and a record delicacy: polenta!
Monastero Bormida, located in the province of Asti, takes its name from to the settlement of a group of Benedictine monks who, around 1050 circa, were called by the Marquis of Monferrato Aleramo from San Benigno Canavese (Abbey Fruttuaria) to plow and sow the lands devastated by the invasions of the Saracens.
The present castle corresponds exactly to the site of the original monastery, of which there are only a few walls and the bell tower, especially those on the square of the tower.
Most likely there was a previous monastery founded by the Lombards, as witnessed by the cult of Santa Giulia
(whose devotion was widespread in northern Italy by the Lombards) that
is still the patron saint of the village and the one to whom is
dedicated the eighteenth century parish church, and from some Lombard place-names as Braia, which means the region that is near a river.
During the fifteenth century the first defensive structure was added by the Marquis del Carretto
and subsequent renovations and expansions were followed, such as the
medieval arch that connects the castle to the tower. The tower, 27
meters high in the Lombard style, presents friezes, and hanging arches
made of bricks and stones.
Today,
the castle has a seventeenth-century facade and maintains the sixteenth
century loggia on the back which can also be visited. The
family Carretto in the middle of the nineteenth century ceded the
property to the Della Rovere family which followed the Polleri family of
Genoa who sold it to the municipality, the current owner.
In front of the castle is the
characteristic lift bridge, and to get inside, you need to go through
the old entrance door in the ancient city wall.
The tour begins along the outer perimeter of the castle in order
to understand the location and history of the structure over the
centuries. Then you enters inside in the plans nobles, whose rooms,
transformed in the seventeenth century, have mosaic floors and frescoed
ceilings sailing and cruising in floral and geometric patterns
.
The halls will host the farm museum,
opening soon. The visit continues with the walkways on the top and ends
in the spacious cellars.
The medieval
Monastero Bormida square, in front of the castle every year, the second Sunday of March, is the theater of
Polentone Festival, one of the oldest gastronomic events in the history of Italian cuisine, which takes place from 1573
.
It is from the sixteenth century that
this area celebrates at the end of winter, its most traditional
product, that is corn flour, which also took the path of organic and
integral.
The event was created by ancient propitiatory ceremonies concerning
the arrival in the country of magnin which stagnated the pots, and
according to a legend it is linked to an act of generosity of the
Marquis Del Carretto, who fed with polenta, sausage and onion omelette a
group of boilermakers exhausted by hunger, who donated to the land the
huge copper pot in which it is still cooked the huge polenta
, which is served to the public with the accompaniment of sausage and onion omelette.
On this occasion in the alleys of the
old town are recreated with philological care the ancient crafts,
performed by the elders of Monastero and the neighboring countries, with
vintage gear. It will be possible, in addition to polenta, taste and buy other agricultural produce, wine and dairy hills of Asti.
The following Monday, classical Polentino of polenta and wild boar.
In short, if you are a gourmand and loved the culinary tradition of our beautiful country, and you are eager for a bit
of fun
, leisure me: this is
my tourism!
