On the summit of one of the highest hills north of Gattinara, at 540 metres, lie the ruins of the castle of San Lorenzo, built in 1187 by the comune of Vercelli to guard the mouths of the Valsesia.
What to see
Inside the walls there is something older than the castle: the chapel of San Lorenzo, which a document of 882 already calls a pieve. Tradition makes it the burial place of the Vercelli bishop San Filosofo, who according to legend took refuge on the mountain to escape persecution by the Lombards. Excavations around the hill and along the access ridge have returned traces of structures and fortifications that suggest a medieval hilltop settlement.
Visiting
The great entrance gate is still intact. Within the perimeter walls you can make out the remains of the central keep and those of the church of San Lorenzo, whose apse carries simple late-medieval sawtooth friezes. The rest is ruin: after restructuring work probably of the Visconti period, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries began the abandonment that reduced the castle to what it is today.
Our editors' tip
You climb up for the view as much as for the stones. From San Lorenzo you understand at a glance why Vercelli wanted a garrison exactly here: from this hill you keep an eye on the plain and on the mouth of the valley at the same time, which is why the castle was built at all.