Barbianello has 890 inhabitants in the plain of the Oltrepò Pavese, on the right bank of the Scuropasso. The name is a diminutive: it comes from Balbianum, an older place that stood on the Po a little further west, and that the river itself destroyed before the end of the Middle Ages. The daughter survived and the mother did not. One more thing needs saying, because it is often written and is not true: Barbianello has nothing to do with the Barbiano of Belgioioso.
Today's comune is the sum of three villages. Besides Barbianello there is Bottarolo, known since the thirteenth century, which was a comune of its own until 1801; and there is San Re, which in the oldest documents is called San Riellus and belonged to the Cluniac priory of San Maiolo of Pavia, then passed in 1564 to the Collegio Borromeo, and was an autonomous comune until 1818. On the coat of arms the village put ears of wheat, which is what is mostly grown here, and the thirteen red hills of the Beccaria, who were the lords of the place.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Barbianello
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Barbianello, but an easy day trip away.