Collobiano lies on the flat between two streams, the Cervo bounding it to the north-west and the Elvo to the south, which meet not far from the village; the houses are gathered in the centre, with rice fields and a few lone farmsteads around. The place first appears as Colobianum in a deed of gift of 1023, and the name is traced to the Latin Colubius, the estate of a Colobio.
In March 1170 the counts of Biandrate handed it to the Avogadro of Vercelli, who held the fief into the eighteenth century and took its name. The Avogadro di Collobiano led the Guelph party, and the castle, by then a refuge for the last exiles from Vercelli, was damaged after the Guelph defeat of 1321. Its oldest part keeps the shape of a ricetto, with corner towers all unlike one another and a rare octagonal one to the north-west. The town's arms repeat the gold and red bars of the Avogadro.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Collobiano
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Collobiano, but an easy day trip away.