The castle of Benevello

Benevello – The castle as we see it today, a kind of simple noble villa with two squat round towers, is very old.

It was probably first built in 1100, as a fortress to protect the road from the Langhe to Alba. Around the year 1300 it was a stronghold owned by the Falletti family; then given to the Savoia royal family, it was given away again to Giovanni Prandi after the Cherasco treaty in 1631, then to the Chiesa family in Saluzzo.

Since 1881 it hosts assistance organizations: it once was a college for the poor girls of the Langhe, and today it’s a community for the recovery of drug addicts.

After the many restorings, there’s not a lot left of the original structure, but it’s worth pointing out how the building is still the neural centre of the whole town.