Massino Visconti

History and places of interest

Small Piedmontese village located on the south-east side of Mount San Salvatore in the hilly territory of Vergante, once rich in vineyards and olive trees.

HISTORY

Despite the probable Roman origins, the first historical news relating to Massino Visconti dates back to the year 865 AD. The enfeoffment to the Visconti was fundamental, who retained the feudal prerogatives of the village from 1134 until the end of the 18th century. The various events of the Visconti, in addition to the name, have also left traces of their passage through the Visconti Castle of San Vito.

PLACES OF INTEREST

- CHURCH OF SAN MICHELE: located in the center of the village, dating back to the mid-11th century, it was the parish church until 1585 when a landslide seriously damaged the structure and gave the bell tower the characteristic strong inclination that it still has today. Starting in 1618, the church was partially rebuilt, preserving only one of the original entrances.
The interior is rich in frescoes dating back to the 15th century. The bell tower, built between 1025 and 1050, has a square plan on 6 floors opened by single-lancet windows and a curious double-lancet window that has a small column and a crutch capital decorated with a sculpted face.

- CHURCH and HERMITAGE OF SAN SALVATORE: Mount San Salvatore is a 794-meter high relief that overlooks the town, the summit of which can be easily reached by traveling the approximately 4 km of asphalt road. On this hill, around the year 1000, the religious men of the Massino Abbey began the construction of a church dedicated to the Savior, to which were later added, at a lower level, three other chapels superimposed to form a singular cluster of Alpine Romanesque art.
In the original apse, now a side chapel of the church significantly modified over time, the restorations of the last century have brought to light a 15th-century pictorial decoration.
In the square in front there are two devotional chapels: one circular Baroque and the other, older, gabled with 15th-century frescoes. Towards the end of the 15th century the monks of Sant’Agostino arrived who expanded the complex and brought precious relics there. Later, with the transfer of the complex to the parish, the monks were replaced by hermits: singular and picturesque figures of men who, secluded from the world, lived on the offerings and alms of the faithful.

- CASTELLO VISCONTEO DI SAN VITO: fortified complex built in the 11th century, at the entrance to the town as a convent of the monks of San Gallo during the first decades of the year 1000. Only later, around 1139, was the structure transformed by the Visconti into a noble country residence. It was partially demolished in 1358 by Galeazzo Visconti, at war with the Marquis of Monferrato.
The current building appears as a three-story building with a single tower. In the structure you can see a small balcony near the courtyard facing the village from where the Viscontis spoke to the villagers. In 1863, Alberto Visconti sold the castle to Pietro Pallestrini, mayor of Massino, who restored it and subsequently passed it on to the Viscontis of San Vito, who still own it with the Marchesa Ludovica Visconti.
In the past, there was also a moat, a drawbridge, prisons and traps for torture, such as the one on the edge of a deep well in which steel blades had been placed, still visible today.

- MONUMENT TO THE UMBRELLA MAKERS: characteristic of the town and created as a tribute to the intense activity of the umbrella makers who lived in large numbers in Massino Visconti and, more generally, in these areas of Vergante and in those of Gignese.