Busca lies at the end of the Maira valley, where the Cuneo plain begins, and since 2019 it also takes in Valmala. The name has no certain explanation: candidates include the Piedmontese buscaja, the brushwood left after destruction, and the Celtic busk, a bush. That the place was long inhabited is clear from the finds: necropolises, gravestones, remains of walls and the Busca stele, carved in Etruscan.
The first lords were the Alinei, to whom in 904 marquis Odelrico Manfredi ceded the territory; a document of 6 March 1123 confirmed Busca's dominion over the Maira valley. Then came the marquises del Vasto, soon squeezed between Cuneo and Saluzzo, and in 1361 the House of Savoy. Charles Emmanuel III raised it to the rank of city in 1762.
Experiences in Busca
What to see in Busca
Castello del Roccolo The d'Azeglio family's neo-medieval castle, with Ghibelline merlons and fifty hectares of park. 
eremo di Belmonte A former monastery at 836 metres, its baroque church in ruins and vaults by Francesco Gonin. 
santuario di Valmala At 1380 metres, the sanctuary born of the 1834 apparitions to four shepherd girls. 
chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta Francesco Gallo's Greek-cross parish church, begun in 1717 and finished in 1728. Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Busca
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Busca, but an easy day trip away.