The castle of the Seyssel d'Aix towers over Sommariva del Bosco and is half fortress, half residence. The original core may go back before the year 1000 and was in any case already standing in 1153, which makes it one of the oldest and best preserved buildings in the whole Roero. The Savoys ceded it in 1733 to the Seyssel d'Aix, who still own it and live in it.
What to see
The two halves are plain to see. The western wing, the one facing the plain, is a large eighteenth-century block with the look of a noble villa. Of the old circular stronghold, which had nine towers, the north side remains: you look at it from the climb of via Carlo Alberto, the one the locals call the podium, which goes up from the town hall to the upper and oldest quarter. It takes in three massive cylindrical towers of the thirteenth century and, in the inner courtyard, the great octagonal keep of the same century, framed by a loggia designed by Benedetto Alfieri.
Visiting
The castle was the scene of sieges, battles, betrayals, oaths, tortures and executions: its position always put it at the centre of the ambitions of the local noble families, the Acaja, the Roero and the Savoys, who contended for it until it changed hands in the eighteenth century. It is a history you cannot read off the walls, but it explains why a fortification of this size stands above a town on the plain.
Our editors' tip
The most interesting thing cannot be seen: under the roots of the trees of the old park that surrounds the castle lie the ruins of the oldest core of the town, pulled down bit by bit over the centuries for strategic reasons. Walking in the park you walk above the village that came before. Go up by the podium road, which is the right place to understand how the system worked: below the town hall and the town, above the old quarter and the fortress, and in between the climb the lords controlled.