Serralunga d'Alba Castle

Serralunga d'Alba lies a short distance from Alba, in the heart of the Piedmontese Langhe, and here stands one of the finest and most unusual castles in Piedmont: the "Military" Castle of Serralunga. The castle belonged to the Counts Falletti of Barolo (where another castle stands), and it rises on a hilltop, dominating the whole hill from above. Its construction is atypical and strange for the period: narrow, tall and typically military. Its Gothic architecture strikes the visitor with its soaring verticality; it can be seen from afar and looks impregnable. It is surrounded by paved little courtyards, and inside no furniture survives, it is bare but very interesting to visit. Visits can be made in groups and are guided; the guide lives in the part of the building next to the castle, which dates from the same era.

The visit has no fixed price; after the tour you leave a free offering to the guide. The whole visit takes about an hour, and the castle's floors can be visited right up to the top one, which has been roofed over and restored in recent times. The fortification has two asymmetrical towers, one round and one square, and a projecting turret. The castle has undergone few renovations, partly because it never suffered serious damage from fighting or war. The entire structure is in exposed brick; inside there are only a few fireplaces and a fresco in a small chapel. The moat is no longer visible today. The castle has been owned by the state since the 1950s. Getting there is not easy, but there are good signs along the Langhe roads. In Serralunga there are also excellent places to eat and a hotel, many shops selling local products and fine wines. The town's historic centre is interesting too.

The tallest castle in Piedmont? Possibly. Serralunga, Langhe, Piedmont... the usual story: the food is superb and there are castles everywhere, we're in the hills, surrounded by nature, a wonderful landscape... We arrive at Serralunga and the Castle is signposted; we park in the town square and take a short walk, stopping at a little restaurant for a bite, excellent! At 2 p.m. the visit to Serralunga Castle begins, a very strange castle, narrow and tall; perched on the top of the hill it looks even taller... Bare, well preserved, in red brick, ancient and beautiful despite having no furnishings, no frescoes and no stuccoes, of course, it was conceived as a military fortress, and beauty was certainly not their first concern. Beside the castle, through a little gravel courtyard, there is an old house dating from the castle's era, later a bit restored...

and it is right inside that the lady who acts as keeper and guide for the castle visits lives. The delightful little balcony jutting from the brick house is made of wood and is... full of cats!! The tour has no fixed price; you leave an offering at the end, and the castle is owned by the municipality, so it surely has state and regional funding... You enter the courtyard, and behind the castle there are small open courtyards with a bit of green and wooden benches. The castle is astonishingly tall, great for photographs, and seen from below it gives an impression of power, of a place of protection, of authority imposed on the town and the valley.

The guide is friendly and very helpful, accepts groups and individuals, very easy-going, a lady of about 50, very professional but in a hypnotic way; a truly super-interesting visit and one to do!! Two entrances, two small, narrow brick arches, the marks showing that hundreds of years ago there was a drawbridge... and a moat that no longer exists. A second entrance, security was never too much here... The castle has never suffered damage from battles or wars, so it is in excellent condition. The guide tells us about the castle's history: it belonged to the Falletti of Barolo (more or less these Falletti lords were unchallenged masters of a great many castles in the Langhe, lucky them). The first rooms (enclosed courtyards) we come across are extremely bare, just the walls and a few windows, holes, grates, doors...

the castle is really very narrow and very tall; we climb the first steep, tall staircase and reach the first floor. First room: probably some sort of kitchen, or at least a much-used room, with a reddish-tiled floor, two fireplaces, a tall window, a small chapel in a corner, the only frescoed spot in the castle; no one knows who painted it, but the fresco (clearly religious, besides) was recently restored in vivid colours. An open urinal in the middle of the room's load-bearing wall (they said it was for emergencies)... practical, these Fallettis, weren't they? We move on up another steep staircase... another interesting room. Here we find on the wall ancient charcoal drawings with emblems, symbols probably of the family or of whoever, in the past, occupied the castle, even only briefly.

Since the castle was abandoned for years and years, it can't be ruled out that some small foreign army sheltered or hid here... leaving some faint trace... tiny inscriptions, almost invisible now, testimony to a not-too-distant past. One last climb, one last rush... one last staircase... extremely steep. And so we reach the roof, or rather what was once the roof, with the patrol walkway and so on... the round turret and the projecting turret on the other side. Not long ago (the only restoration work done in the castle), this roof was closed with a real tiled roof, the walls were raised and the patrol walkway became a huge room, an enormous open space with wall-mounted tilt-and-turn windows to look out from up there over the Langhe and beyond.

It's a lovely place, this big space, where there is nothing but which makes you feel safe and curious; you peek out of the windows and realise that many years ago, whoever was up here really was the king of the world... so high, with that beautiful view, from there you can see the castles of S. Vittoria d'Alba, Grinzane and others. We come down satisfied and in the little courtyard we meet the kittens of the cat belonging to the lady who guided our visit. I leave my contribution, my offering; the visit was interesting and lasted an hour. The group disperses... it's still going, so we rush off to discover other fairytale or military castles in the area. Excellent impression, interesting and well organised. I come out of this castle with 120 photographs to my name!! P.S.

A novelty of this castle to do with the toilet: they were so advanced that they were almost the only ones to create an indoor toilet in the castle, which didn't drain outside but into an internal cavity in the castle. A real enclosed bathroom in a tiny little room. But might all our home bathrooms derive from there???