Castello di Montemagno

The castle crowns the top of the hill, its crenellated walls rising straight from the rock above the borgo. Held for centuries by a succession of feudal families — the Turco, then the Grisella, Paleologi and Gonzaga, and finally the House of Savoy by 1708 — it was remodelled from a fortress into a stately residence in the early 1700s, and keeps an unusual elliptical inner courtyard. Twelve numbered medieval lanes, marked in Roman numerals, climb the hill to reach it. Now privately owned by the Conti Calvi di Bergolo, it opens to visitors on set dates through the regional Castelli Aperti circuit.