Page - Historical towns
Pollenzo
Founded at the end of the 2nd century, Charles V sold Pollenzo to the Dukes of Savoy in the first half of the 16th century. It was in 1833 that King Carlo Alberto began restoring and developing the castle, the township and the surrounding lands. The result was the Agenzia, an economic hub and an experimental estate designed to make farming more profitable. Long unused and left in a state of abandon, Agenzia was restored by an elaborate conversion project promoted by Slow Food. The complex now includes the University of Gastronomic Sciences, the Wine Bank, the Academic Tables students’ restaurant, the Albergo dell’Agenzia and our hotel.
Bra
6 km from the Albergo Corte Albertina
Take a walk round its old streets and you’ll see why this small town has become an international tourist destination. It was here, among baroque piazzas and palazzi, that the famous association Slow Food was born and still has its offices. Bra boasts not only monuments such as the baroque Palazzo Comunale, the rococo Church of Santa Chiara, and La Zizzola, a fromer manor on top of Monteguglielmo, but also numerous excellent osterias and small food shops that sell the best from the surrounding farmland. The towns’ bars and cultural events are enlivened by the presence of the international students of the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Every two years, the event ‘Cheese!’ transforms the centre into an immense open-air cheese market.
Alba
12 km from the Albergo Corte Albertina
With its gastronomic specialties such as wine and truffles, art and history, the Langa district’s chief town deserves a special visit. Traces of the Romans’ Alba Pompeia, are visible in the layout of the old centre, in the walls and in the sewerage system, while remains of floors, frescoes, tombs, funeral trappings, vestments, tombstones and inscriptions are conserved in the Museo Civico ‘Federico Eusebio’. The old centre, however, is mostly medieval in appearance with brick towers and fortified houses lining the streets from Via Cavour to the piazza in front of the Duomo di S. Lorenzo, traditionally the hub of religious and social life.
Cherasco
8 km from the Albergo Corte Albertina
Famous for its Barolo, art and history, this little gem of a town boasts magnificent monuments, churches and palazzi, as well as a street layout that has remained intact down the centuries. Here the peace treaty that followed conflict for the Monferrato succession was signed in 1631, followed by the agreement that ended hostilities between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1796.
Bene Vagienna
20 km from the Albergo Corte Albertina
The town came into being 2,000 years ago as Augusta Bagiennorum, one of three Roman Augustas in Piedmont, at once a military garrison at the foot of the rough mountain roads that led to Gaul and a trading centre looking onto the fertile Po Valley. In the 1550s it was caught up in the wars between France and Spain, of which its pentagonal fortified walls are a reminder. Other relics of the town’s past splendour are the podium of the Roman theatre in the centre, the amphitheatre just outside, the castle, the medieval walls, the impressive palazzi and the many beautiful churches.
