Patron saint festival In 282 days
Saint James, patron of the town of the Fort
📅 Every year, on 25 July
Gavi celebrates Saint James on 25 July, in the church dedicated to him.
Three explanations of the name are on offer. The first takes it from the Neolithic station of Cavatium, whence the Latin Gavium. The second from the Goths who came after the empire: from the old Germanic gau, tribe and seat of the tribe, whose genitive is gawi. The third is a legend: a Saracen princess, Gavia or Gavina, is said to have made her home in the castle; she seems to have been French, and the oldest street below the castle is still called Monserito, from Mon Cheri.
The fort above the town was built by the Genoese between 1540 and 1673, on the remains of an older castle, to a design by the military architect Vincenzo Maculani. Under Napoleon the French army held it, and Ugo Foscolo served among those soldiers.
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Gavi 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Gavi
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Gavi, but an easy day trip away.
Villa Pallavicino 📍 Salerano Canavese · 5.8 km The Second Empire villa gazing over the morainic amphitheatre of Ivrea from a hill above Salerano Canavese. Torre di Pramotton 📍 Donnas · 15 km A twelfth-century hexagonal tower at 540 metres, signalling to the Pont-Saint-Martin castle and the fort of Bard. Castello di Suzey 📍 Pont-Saint-Martin · 15 km A ruin above Ivéry: in 1351 the Vallaise held an Ivrea merchant prisoner here for ransom. Pont Saint-Martin 📍 Pont-Saint-Martin · 16 km Two thousand years of traffic on a single span: the boldest flat arch left from Roman times. Riserva naturale stagno di Holay 📍 Pont-Saint-Martin · 15 km A hectare and a half of wetland at 750 metres, with relict species rare in the Aosta Valley. castello di Pont-Saint-Martin 📍 Pont-Saint-Martin · 16 km The old castle, with its rare hexagonal keep, half an hour up through the vineyards above the town.