The name most likely comes from Curtismilium, from the Latin curtis, the large self-sufficient farm estate out of which the fief would grow. In 967 a diploma of Otto I granted Cortemilia and fifteen other courts of the Vasto to marquis Aleramo — and Vasto, in those documents, comes from a root meaning desert, or plundered land.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries a mint worked here, striking gold and silver coins for the Del Carretto marquises, among them the marchesano of Oddone del Carretto. Along the street that split the castle side from the borgo, the church of San Michele and the Franciscan friary still face each other, almost as mirrors.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Cortemilia
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
