Castel Borello stands near Bussoleno, in the Susa valley, and is reached from the hamlet of Baroni, a couple of kilometres from the centre. The first records are of the fourteenth century, but the building is probably older, perhaps of the twelfth. It belonged to the Borello lords, from whom it takes its name, and it served the local people as a refuge in wartime: it was not a residence but a place to be safe.
What to see
The building is quadrangular in plan and built of stone, with large loopholes and windows protected by iron grilles; the roof is of lose, the stone slabs that have always covered houses in these valleys. The shape declares the purpose: thick walls, few openings and those few defended, no concession to elegance. It rests against the slope among the trees, and you only see it whole by walking round it.
Visiting
The castle changed hands many times: from the Borello it passed to the Aschieri, the Bartolomei and the Rotari of Susa. In the eighteenth century it belonged to the Allasio of Bussoleno, a noble family of Franco-German origin, arisen in Brittany in Carolingian times and fled from France in 1685, when the Huguenots were driven out; the Allasio held it until the early twentieth century. During the plague of 1630 the owner was the physician Fiocchetto, who worked hard at caring for the sick.
Our editors' tip
The oddest use is the most recent: the Italian Meteorological Society had its seat here before moving to Moncalieri. A refuge castle of the lower valley turned for a while into the place from which the weather was observed: it is not a use you expect, and it is the kind of detail that makes the trip up to Baroni worth it. The name of the Aschieri, among the owners, is the same as the porticoed medieval house in the centre of Bussoleno that served as a model for Turin's Borgo Medievale.