“… I know Gorzegno well, because in my youth I often went with my father to stock up on wine and chestnuts…”.
With these words Beppe Fenoglio described this small village (around 330 inhabitants) located in the heart of the Langhe, in the Bormida Valley.
Gorzegno’s history is known from the early Middle Ages, and in later centuries it was linked to the Del Carretto marquesses. Direct evidence is provided by the ruined castle, the village’s symbolic monument, clearly visible from the encircling road and rising up to dominate this part of the valley.
The building’s current perimeter, with a tower-gate and a large residential tower, date from the castle’s first construction phase, in around the 12th century.
During a later phase, the castle was expanded with further residential quarters and a keep (still visible today).
The last phase is datable to around 1580, when the castle took on the shape of a fortified mansion, with four four-sided corner towers. These last modifications suggest that by now its use was primarily residential.
Today it is hard to make out the oldest features of the fortified complex. Little remains apart from the ruins of a once imposing and majestic structure, now almost completely overgrown with vegetation.
