Torre millenaria e borgo di Murazzano

Above the Alta Langa village of Murazzano stands a squared medieval stone tower, the surviving core of a castle that once guarded the hills here. Restored and set in a public garden at the village's highest point, it doubles as a belvedere over the Langa ridges, while the borgo around it keeps chapels, gates and an unusual eclectic palace.

Why it matters

Murazzano's nickname — "scudo e chiave del Piemonte", Piedmont's shield and key — comes from its hilltop position on routes running toward the Ligurian coast, and the tower is the architectural evidence of that role. It is what remains of a fortified complex that controlled the "road to the Riviera", passed among the marquises of Saluzzo, Savoy forces and successive feudal families, and declined after fire damage in the Napoleonic era. Today the tower belongs to the municipality, stands in the public Parco della Torre at the village's highest point, and functions as the emblem of Murazzano — a stage village of the Strada Romantica and the heart of the Alta Langa, at roughly 550 metres of elevation.

What to notice

The square tower is built of well-squared stone and was restored in 2003. From its hilltop setting, the Langa hills extend towards the Alps. Murazzano's historic centre also includes the chapel of Sant'Anna, the church of San Lorenzo, the shrine of the Beata Vergine di Hal and Porta Buzignano. Palazzo Tovegni, an early-twentieth-century eclectic building, stands near remnants of the old castle.

Context and history

The fortification of Murazzano belongs to the medieval competition for control of the roads between Piedmont and the Ligurian coast. The surviving tower is generally dated to the first decades of the thirteenth century and associated with Bonifacio "Mulazzano", a lord under Manfredo II of Saluzzo, while local tradition recalls a watchtower on the site as early as the tenth century. The castle followed the fortunes of the Saluzzo marquisate and later the Savoy orbit, was adapted into a residence, changed hands repeatedly, suffered in the dynastic wars of the seventeenth century, and was burned in the Napoleonic period, leaving the tower as the principal survivor. Murazzano's later identity is pastoral and literary: the village gives its name to a raw sheep-milk cheese with DOP status, and the Strada Romantica's stage description ties it to Beppe Fenoglio, the writer who fixed these hills in Italian literature.