Patron saint festival In 242 days
Feast of Saint Bernard of Menthon
📅 Every year, on 15 June
On 15 June Ailoche, a municipality of 330 inhabitants in the province of Biella, celebrates its patron Saint Bernard of Menthon.
Ailoche, Anlòche in Piedmontese, sits at the north-eastern edge of the Biella area, on a spur dividing two valleys: the Strona di Postua to the east, the rio Bodro to the west. The meaning of the name is still argued: Goffredo Casalis kept the traditional reading, dialect ai loch, “at the places”, meaning pastures; Dante Olivieri tied it instead to Lombard lögh, “rural property”, ruling out the tawny owl.
The village goes back to the Middle Ages and first depended on Crevacuore; in 1598 it fell to the principality of Masserano. In the hamlet of Piasca, then little more than a cluster of shepherds' huts, the blessed Giacomino de' Canepacci was born in 1438; a Carmelite at Vercelli, he took in passing pilgrims and cared for prisoners, and died in 1508. His birthplace is now a chapel. In a chestnut wood inside the municipality stands the Brugarola sanctuary, dedicated to the Madonna of Oropa, beside the building that housed its hermits.
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Ailoche 1
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Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Ailoche
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Ailoche, but an easy day trip away.
chiesa dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo 📍 Luni · 400 m Rothari levelled the Byzantine chapel; in the eleventh century Nicola rebuilt on its highest point. santuario di Nostra Signora del Mirteto 📍 Luni · 1.1 km In 1537 a painting wept tears of blood: from that grew the sanctuary above Ortonovo. chiesa di San Lorenzo 📍 Luni · 1.3 km Built between 1621 and 1645 on the ruins of a castle, a perpetual abbey since 1714. chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena 📍 Castelnuovo Magra · 2.5 km Three naves on eight columns of Carrara marble, under a portal carved in 1671. Palazzo Amati Ingolotti Cornelio 📍 Castelnuovo Magra · 2.5 km A marchese rebuilt it for his duchess wife; its sixteenth-century cellars now pour the local wine. Luna 📍 Luni · 2.9 km Rome's marble port: forum, theatre and an amphitheatre for 7,000, at the mouth of the Magra.