Castle of San Sebastiano

The Castle of San Sebastiano

Medieval Castle in Monferrato in the province of Turin where to spend holidays or to choose how location to private events. In the park there is a Italian garden with parterre of boxwoods and roses: in the glorious times of its history, the castle hosted up to 3000 species of plants and flowers.

Today there is still an orchard in memory of the medieval pomari, and a greenhouse next to the neoclassical temple: which has the sole function of containing access to another section of the garden. The tinaggio was the place where were the vats that contained the grapes of the nearby vineyards during the fermentation: the production of wine was a great resource of the territory, today it is possible to hold delicious banquets in a place that still retains the details of a time .

The history of the Castello di San Sebastiano

Ancient walls, timeless perfumes, scents of moss, trees and flowers. Bursts of blades, horse neighing, soldiers shouted. Its origins date back tohigh Middle age (century X), when the country was part of the Marchesato del Monferrato.

The first documents relating to the town of San Sebastiano they put it under the lordship of the Radicati, becoming in the following centuries the theater of the wars for supremacy over Piedmont, first between the Savoy and the Marquises of Monferrato, then with the involvement of Spaniards and French. The fortunes of the castle at that time are not documented.

Instead the date of 1761 is precise, in which the Count of San Sebastiano, Paolo Federico Novarina, commissioned the architect Bernardo Vittone, member of the Piedmontese Baroque, to renovate the entire castle complex, after having seen it at work in the restructuring of the adjacent parish church. Count Novarina, who was commander of the Piedmont regiment in the 1763, had participated in the battle of the Assietta, in the 1747, and on that occasion, to keep his soldiers in front of the predominant French troops in number, had launched the famous phrase : "Fieui, bugiè nen! (Guys, do not move!) ". From this episode came a term with which the Piedmontese are still called today "Bougia nèn", that is people who do not move.

The castle was a destination for illustrious visitors: among others, Napoleon I, given that Count Pietro Novarina had joined and supported the French Republic. In honor of the French emperor, a rare plant, the Ginkgo biolca, still exists today in the 1810.

It is said that in the castle also passed Cavour, being his secretary but also a trusted man of the owner count. But it is from the beginning of the nineteenth century that the castle sees its maximum splendor, when Pietro Bagetti, painter and architect from Piedmont, fresco the gallery.

In 1810 Xavier Kurten, German architect of gardens, designs the park, which soon became a field of study for the University of Botany in Turin. In the park there is an Italian garden with boxwood parcels and roses: in the glorious times of its history, the castle hosted up to 3000 species of plants and flowers.

Today one is still present frutteto in memory of the medieval pomari, and a greenhouse next to the neoclassical temple: which has the sole function of containing access to another section of the garden. The tinaggio was the place where were the vats that contained the grapes of the nearby vineyards during the fermentation: the production of wine was a great resource of the territory, today it is possible to hold delicious banquets in a place that still retains the details of a time .

Services: reception, events location and weddings in the Monferrato area

Event organization:

Matrimoni: 2.000-3.000 €
Corporate events: starting from 600 €
Various events: starting from 600 €

Hospitality in Tuscany:

Single room per day: single room € 75 / double room € 110 (b & b)
Single room per week: single room € 390 / double room € 590 (b & b)
Single room at the weekend: single room € 140 / double room € 200 (b & b)

All prices are valid in high and low season.

Places of interest nearby

First of all theAbbey of Vezzolano, attested by the 905, but present perhaps already in the times of King Carlomagno: contains frescoes with figures of saints, warriors and knights (not really saints), can be reached with a path of 16 km between the vineyards and the woods, and deserves a visit.

At 10 km there is theAbbey of Santa Fede, jewel of the Romanesque, the only church of Piedmont built on the plan of the Egyptian triangle, with a façade that illustrates to the visitor all its artistic beauty and its antiquity.

At 6 km from San Sebastiano there are the remains of Industry, ancient city ​​of the Roman Empire, with the hole and the temple of Isis, a flourishing cult in the late Romanesque period.

A territory, that of the Monferrato, which presents ancient cities, Romanesque churches, castles, to the attentive and sensitive visitor to the beauties of nature and of man.