Maranzana Castle

Address: Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, 10, 14040 Maranzana AT, Italia

Web Site: https://www.comune.maranzana.at.it/it/page/il-castello-e-la-torre-civica

Highlights

Towering over the main square is the medieval castle from 1100, expanded and remodeled over the centuries but perfectly preserved and open to visitors year-round.

History

In medieval times, the territory of Maranzana was controlled by the Marquises of Incisa.

In 1180 the Marquis Del Bosco entered into a pact of understanding with Alessandria, receiving part of the Alessandria territory as a fief and, as a place of great strategic importance, the fief of Maranzana.

In 1221 the fief of Maranzana became property of the Astigiani who, swearing allegiance to the bishops, received the territory in exchange.

After intricate and alternating events, in 1477 part of the fiefdom passed to the Occimiano family and in 1590 Antonio di Biandrate became feudatory of the territory.

The latter, in 1634, alienated the castle of Maranzana to Filippo Caresana whose family, a few years later, passed possession to the Ghilini family who, in turn, during the 19th century ceded the property to the Pozzi family.

Features

The Maranzana castle is located inside the town's concentric, and the complex is a good example of a fortified building and stands out for its grandiose and austere wall structure, lightened by some elements of architectural and decorative quality.

It is characterized by a large wall of protective and strategic importance, overlooking the valley of the Cervino stream to the northwest and opening to the east toward the concentric, by means of a bridge that in ancient times was a "drawbridge" and still allows access to the castle.

On this side the walls close around the ancient tower (preexisting to the body of the castle), which repeats in its friezes, sawtooth, the ornamental motifs on the entire perimeter of the walls overlooking the central square.

At the end of the 16th century it appeared around the ricetto was a ditch in which rainwater stagnated.

The majestic building has preserved some important parts, despite the remodeling carried out over time, including: the imposing square tower, which has a scarp masonry at the base and a beautiful frieze at the top, in the form of a sawtooth; the large building that is grafted onto the tower with an obtuse angle course; the layout of the curtains (about two meters of masonry) and the beautiful circular corner tower, also decorated with sawtooth, but, unfortunately, fallen victim to tampering, concerning a loggia carved in its upper part, obtained by destroying the crowning and battlements.

In Maranzana, as well as in other Monferrato castles, it is interesting to point out a constant characteristic: the coexistence of square and round towers in the same manor.

The alternation of round and square towers in the castles of the area is hardly ever a coincidence, but it can be stated, with confidence, that it is a very precise style of construction, which consists of building, generally, the corner towers in a circular shape, while, the keep or at any rate the tower above the entrance in a square or rectangular shape.

This peculiarity rarely occurs in other regions of Italy.