Baldissero d'Alba

The lords of Baldissero were a branch of the Summaripa of Sommariva Perno; late in the sixteenth century, after ties with the famous Roman family, they took the name Colonna, and Colonna is still the castle's name, on record by 1268. Inside are the frescoed walls of a Gothic chapel, outside the tower called dei Coltelli.

The oldest parish stood not in the village but out at the rocche, among vineyards: Sant'Antonino, founded at the end of the eighth century in the Frankish settlement where Lombards had lived before; in 1837 Mass was still said there one day a year. The rocche are the pale cliffs that cut through the Roero.