San Genuario Castle () is a castle located in

Crescentino Crescentino is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about southwest of Vercelli. Crescentino borders the following municipalities: Brusasco, Fontanetto ...

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

History

The castle stands in an area that was once strategically important due to its location on the border between the territories of the

March of Montferrat The March (also ''margraviate'' or ''marquisate'') of Montferrat was a frontier march of the Kingdom of Italy during the Middle Ages and a state of the Holy Roman Empire. The margraviate was raised to become the Duchy of Montferrat in 1574. ...

and those of the Diocese of Vercelli. Its origins are linked to the Benedictine monastery founded in 707 by the Lombard general Gauderio, the first monastic settlement in the area. In 843, Emperor

Lothair I Lothair I (9th. C. Frankish: ''Ludher'' and Medieval Latin: ''Lodharius''; Dutch and Medieval Latin: ''Lotharius''; German: ''Lothar''; French: ''Lothaire''; Italian: ''Lotario''; 795 – 29 September 855) was a 9th-century emperor of the ...

donated the relics of Saint Genuarius to the local abbey, giving the village and monastery their current name. Following conflicts between Guelphs and Ghibellines, in 1419 Giacomo Tizzoni, lord of Crescentino, obtained papal authorization to build a castle to defend the monastery, likely on the site of a previous fortress destroyed in 1319. The Tizzoni family maintained control of the castle until 1592, when

Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy Charles Emmanuel I (; 12 January 1562 – 26 July 1630), known as the Great, was the Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 30 August 1580 until his death almost 50 years later in 1630, he was the longest-reigning Savoyard monarch ...

brought it back under his rule. The fief later passed to various noble families, including the Molino di San Marco, Bobba, and Morozzo Della Rocca. In the 19th century, the castle became the property of banker Giani and later of Cavalier Gonella. In the early 20th century, the Garella family transformed the complex into a farm, adding new structures to the courtyard. The interiors were modified during World War II to accommodate displaced people.

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External links

{{Commons category inline Castles in Piedmont Crescentino