Monastero Bormida, between noble knights and polenta record

 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!