Castello di Cisterna d'Asti – Museo di Arti e Mestieri di un Tempo

The medieval castle of Cisterna d'Asti houses the Museum of Arts and Trades of the Past, an ethnographic collection of more than 6,000 objects documenting workshops, domestic spaces and trades that persisted into the twentieth century.

Why it matters

The Roero's castles mostly tell feudal and aristocratic stories. Cisterna d'Asti tells the working one. The museum contains more than 6,000 objects dating from 1600 to 1900, including tools, machines and workshop interiors. Its 25 rooms present crafts and domestic spaces that formed part of rural Piedmontese life. The collection has appeared in FAI's "I Luoghi del Cuore" census.

What to notice

The museum's workshops range from the cobbler and organ builder to the printing trade. Other rooms recreate a bourgeois kitchen and an osteria, display weights and measures, and present tailoring. The medieval castle overlooks the surrounding Monferrato, Langhe and Roero hills.

Context and history

The castle's documented story ties it to Asti, to the Roero family, and to Pope Sixtus IV, who in the fifteenth century entrusted it to his nephew Antonio Della Rovere; in 1673 it became a principality under Pope Clemente X, acquired by the Dal Pozzo family with the right to mint its own coinage. The dynasty's most consequential marriage came when Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo wed Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta; her heirs donated the castle to the town in 1912. The museum within it grew from volunteer collecting and restoration work and is now recognised as one of Piedmont's significant ethnographic collections. Cisterna d'Asti lies at the eastern end of the Rocche landscape interpreted by the Ecomuseo delle Rocche del Roero.