Monferrato

Geographically, Monferrato covers an area that roughly corresponds to the provinces of Alessandria and Asti. Its borders are the Po River to the north in the province of Turin, the Ligurian Apennines with the metropolitan city of Genoa to the south, the province of Cuneo to the west and the Lombard province of Pavia to the east.

Currently we can consider three areas:

Low Monferrato also called Monferrato Casalese - the main centers are Casale and Valenza

High Monferrato - both in the province of Alessandria, the main centers are Acqui Terme and Ovada -

Astigian Monferrato - Asti and Nizza Monferrato -.

Historically, however, the "Monferrato" is more evanescent. The territory that was initially called Monferrato seems to correspond to a toponym and not to a "marca" (border district) conferred by Berengario II, king of Italy and marquis of Ivrea, to his son-in-law Aleramo (904 – 991).

Nowadays the more historically accepted idea is that the honorific recognitions to Aleramo did not initially correspond to a land investiture, but that he simply acquired territories, precisely including Monferrato - a land between the Tanaro and the Po rivers in the north of Alessandria -, and numerous other localities in the dioceses of Acqui, Vercelli, Vado-Savona and in the southernmost area of the marquisate of Turin.

This patrimony will be transmitted and, little by little, dismembered among his descendants.

From Aleramo descend the various marquis families who fought over it over the centuries: the marquises of Cleva and Clavesana, the marquises of Carretto, the marquises of Occimiano, the marquises of Sezzadio, the marquises of Cortemilia, the marquises of Bosco, the marquises of Busca, the marquises of Lancia and the lords of Loreto.

But only in a document of 1111, Ranieri, will it be titled as Marquise of Monferrato. The history of Monferrato, however, is not only the history of struggles between small potentates. With Guglielmo V (1133-1191) the marquisate will fully enter Italian and European history. Due to its strategic position as a transit area, between the plain and the sea, and its political function as a buffer state between potentates loyal to either France or the Empire, Monferrato wil be contested, divided, extended or fragmented until the 17th century. These historical and geographical characteristics make Monferrato a vast territory rich in environments, places and assets of kaleidoscopic variety and beauty. From the plains to the mountains to the sea, the landscapes vary offering us wonderful views. From the wheat fields of the plains to the vineyards on the hills, to the woods rich in fauna and flora and the mountains that plunge into the Ligurian Sea, the gaze can always draw on glimpses of composed and orderly or wild and mysterious beauty.

Castles, towers, stately homes, convents, churches and cathedrals are scattered everywhere and tell us about the life of our territory since the ancient e primitive Ligurian populations’ times to today.