Castelletto Merli

Castelletto Merli is not one village but a dozen hamlets scattered over the hills that climb towards the Sacro Monte di Crea, a feudal-age layout. The name first appears in a document of Frederick Barbarossa confirming the holding to the marquises of Monferrato.

The Merli, enfeoffed here in the eleventh century, gave the comune its arms: three black blackbirds set on three golden axes. Of their castle, on the highest ground in the comune, little remains inside later houses; the walls also held the church of San Nicolao, recorded in 1298. The hamlet churches are still there, like the brick one at Godio, with a sundial painted on its tower.