Verso il Castello

Enrico Gonin’s litography (1798-1856) from “Album delle principali castella feudali della Monarchia di Savoia” Turin, Fontana, 1841-1857

Castle Gardens
The transformation from a defensive manor to a mansion, happened on the initiative of the Coardi Counts of Carpenetto,
owners of the Castle since 1776. The reshaping of the complex, between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, defined the current configuration of the neoclassical main facade of the Castle, the terraced gardens and the wide park that still extends to the historical center of Valperga.
Various types of gardens can be identified in the Gonin lithography.
In front of the facade there are present ancient trees while on the other side of the Castle, bordering with Church of Saint Giorgio, there is a tree-lined garden.

Roc
“Roc", the rock, is a granite outcrop in front of the burial ground of Coardi Counts of Carpenetto. This ancient property was allowed from the Counts of Valperga to be used by the inhabitant. 
In the past the ”Roc” was wider because the cobblestone path, which today is used to travel through Belmonte, followed a different path that gone across the terraces of the Castle and the defensive walls, until it reached the passage under the burial ground.
At the top of the flat ground, until the beginning of the 1700s, was present the rural chapel of Saint Tommaso where today is placed the “site specific” installation “L’invisibile” built in 2018 by the artist Enrico Minguzzi. In recent times, the management body of the Special Reserve of the Sacred Mount of Belmonte, oversaw the realization of a rock garden in the area of the “Roc”, planting some ornamental species like arbutus, dogwoods, spindles and blackthorns.

Vineyards
In past centuries, the South and South-east slopes of the Castle were largely cultivated with vines on terraces bordered by dry stone walls. The mainly sandy medium texture terrains helped the production of precious varieties as the Syrah vine. 
For many centuries the cultivation of vine, still present today thanks to the Associazione Vignaioli Valperghesi (www.vignaiolivalperghesi.it), it was an important part of the local economy with extended plots both in the plains and in the hills. It is estimated that in 1700s, period of maximum expansion, the area planted with vines reached the 3000 Piedmontese days (one day is equal about 3810 sqm) thanks also to the interest of the Coardi Counts of Carpenetto and the Count Tommaso Valperga of Civrone, already president of the prestigious Agrarian Royal Society of Turin, current Agriculture Academy of Turin.

Church of Saint Aventino 
The church was built by the curate Don Martino Ughetto probably after the first half of the 17th century in place of the Madonna of Oropa chapel. It was completed in 1765 with the construction of a small bell tower. Since 1894, the church appears to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to the figure of the hermit Saint Aventino of Troyes.

Litografia di Enrico Gonin (1798-1856) da “Album delle principali castella feudali della Monarchia di Savoia” Torino, Fontana, 1841-1857

 

Chiesa Sant'Aventino