Novello

Novello is a nice town, made of a few houses on the top of a hill.

The entrance to the town is marked by a medieval door, near the church of san Michele Arcangelo, built at the end of the eighteenth century.

In the same period the church of the fraternity of san Giovanni was built, with its baroque facade.

The castle dominates the town from the “rocca”: it was built in 1880 by Gian Battista Schellino in a neogothic style.

The Wine shop in piazza Marconi offers the “Branda di Novello”, a grappa made from marcs, along with a selected choice of wines.

Among the initiatives, interesting are the concerts of classical music performed during the fair of santa Lucia.

History

The town of Novello has been founded before the I century, as shown by a tombstone found on the hill; its origins are linked to the town of Alba Pompeia, because this town’s aristocrats liked the climate and view of the smaller town and used to spend the summer there. The name Novello comes from “novae villae” (new houses, the ones built by Albese people).

The first inhabitants were of the Liguri Stazielli tribe; after the submission to Rome and the Barbarian invasions, during the Carolingian reign the town was under the influence of the bishop of Alba, was occupied by the Hungarians and later, in 1100, it was bought by the Del Carretto marquis.

For a long time they had to fight over this feud with the Communes of Alba and Asti, since it was an important road to the sea.

From 1400 to 1600 it was more than once occupied by Spanish soldiers, during the succession wars in Italy, until the whole feud, with the castle and the land surrounding it, was sold by the Austrians to the duke Vittorio Amedeo di Savoia.

At the end of the eighteenth century Napoleon’s troops occupied this territory.