The root of the toponym Frassinello recalls that of Frassineto, a town in the Provence (Le Garde-Freinet) province of Alessandria, in Piedmont, which in the Middle Ages was a coastal area for a long time under the control of Saracen pirates, who often left here for making raids and looting in the Ligurian and Piedmontese hinterland.
A group arrived in Monferrato in 936 and until 946 encamped in the territory, where their presence is attested by the name of Grotte dei Saraceni which identifies the underground tunnels between the villages of Frassinello and Moleto and in which it is said that the their booty.
The first documented information on the Castle of Frassinello dates back to the 11th century, when in a diploma from Henry III, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the village was mentioned as a settlement cum castro et corte et cappella. Its position on the top of the hill and its conformation testify that it was a Curtense manor, with military and administrative functions.
In fact, the caminata stands out in the architectural structures of the complex, a large late-Gothic room with fine arches, a convivial meeting place around a huge fireplace, where lords and vassals gathered in assembly and assizes, seat of legal processes, in particular against local criminals. In fact, adjacent to the hall of the chimney where the court met and connected to it by passages hidden from view, there is a room where, after the sentence, the condemned to death were thrown into the torture chamber of the drop, a ferocious lethal torture.
Over the centuries, the Frassinello Castle has undergone many changes. As the home of the noble Nemours family, counts of Frassinello, lords of Lignano and Knights of Malta, between the 17th and 18th centuries it was adorned with many frescoes and an octagonal chapel. At the end of the eighteenth century the Sacchi-Nemours family, born from the union of the two families, brought new touches to the complex, including the valuable mosaic floor of the hall of honor with the noble coat of arms, the frescoed friezes framing the ceilings and the suggestive billiard room.
The nineteenth century witnessed the major neo-Gothic restoration, in Violet Le Duc style, which enhanced the large round windows of the wing called Fioriera, a jewel of architecture carved in tuff, and transformed the two ancient cylindrical towers into turrets square with arcades.
Frassinello Castle
Address: Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1, 15035
Phone: +393389079406
Site:
http://www.castellodifrassinello.it/Location inserted by
Maddalena Monferrato HospitalityHandmade