A document of 1214 contains the phrase castrum quod vocatur Decus: the first written trace of the castle of Dego. That year the marquis Ottone Del Carretto handed over his lands to the Republic of Genoa in exchange for official investiture, consolidating the family's grip on the Bormida valley; the deed was signed in the castle of Cairo Montenotte, seat of the Del Carretto court. The village of Dego had come to him by inheritance around 1185, on the death of his father Enrico I, known as il Guercio. There is no reliable documentation on the origin of the stronghold, a military post rather than a dwelling: it may have been built by the Del Carretto in the thirteenth century, while local tradition takes it back to the tenth, when Dego was one of the estates granted to Aleramo of Monferrato.
What to see
What survives are ruins, in the hamlet of Cua, in a commanding position above the village of the upper Val Bormida: only part of the circuit wall is intact. The rest was done by four centuries of passing wars, because this valley has always been a road.
The castle changed hands constantly: in 1339 fief and fortress went to the Scarampi, a family from Asti, then returned to the Del Carretto from 1350 to 1419, when the territory passed to the Marquisate of Monferrato. Here, in all likelihood, stood the mint of the marquis of Ponzone, who until the fifteenth century also administered the fief of Giusvalla. In 1553 the post was besieged by the French troops of marshal Charles I de Cossé-Brissac, in the service of Henry II, and surrendered without resistance; in 1625 it was occupied by the soldiers of Amedeo I of Savoy; after 1735 it ended up in the Kingdom of Sardinia. The Franco-Spanish sack of 1745 and above all the second battle of Dego in 1796, won by Napoleon's soldiers over the Austrians, left it half ruined: on that occasion the village lost almost four hundred people.
Visiting
There are two ways up. The first is a motorable road, easy and without surprises. The second is the Napoleonic path, steeper and far more panoramic, which links the modern centre of the village to the older upper part: it is the same slope that was fought over, and walking it changes the way you look at the ruins. There are no tickets and no opening hours, but no railings either: caution among the collapsed walls is the visitor's own business.
Our editors' tip
We suggest going up by the Napoleonic path and coming back down the road: the effort is all in the ascent and the view over the valley is earned the right way. At the top, give a few minutes to the stretch of wall still standing, the one place where you understand how thick the masonry of a valley fortress had to be.