The castle of San Genuario stands in the hamlet of that name at Crescentino, in an area that was strategic because it marked the border between the marquisate of Monferrato and the lands of the diocese of Vercelli. Its origins are tied to the Benedictine monastery founded in 707 by the Lombard general Gauderio, the first monastic settlement in the district; in 843 the emperor Lothair I gave the abbey the relics of Saint Genuarius, and from them come the names of both village and monastery.
What to see
The castle has a Renaissance look, more a noble residence than a stronghold: a square main block against which lean a cylindrical tower and terraces crowned with Ghibelline merlons. On every side of the central body run projecting architectural elements of considerable effect, and the tower too is enriched by a crown of corbels.
Visiting
Its state of preservation is good, and for a precise reason: the castle never suffered war damage. The restoration carried out between 1998 and 2000 consolidated the structures and removed most of the eighteenth-century plasterwork, which sat badly on the building.
Our editors' tip
The castle began as a guard post for an abbey, not as a residence. It was Giacomo Tizzoni, lord of Crescentino, who obtained papal authorisation in 1419 to build it in defence of the monastery, probably where an earlier fortress destroyed in 1319 had stood. The Tizzoni held it until 1592, after which it passed from family to family until, in the twentieth century, it became a farm run by the Garella, with new buildings in the courtyard and interiors reworked during the war to house displaced people.