Comune Cremolino

piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, 7 - 15010 Cremolino (AL)
Tel. +39 0143 879037
Fax: +39 0143 879425
E-mail: anagrafe@comune.cremolino.al.it

Tour
Our tour starts from the Parish church of Cremolino; dedicated to N. S. del Carmine, it was built between 1876 and 1892. The interior preserves the pulpit of Carrara Marble of 1879 and the Vegezzi-Bossi organ of 1914. A little further on is the Convent of the Carmelite nuns: it was built in 1440 in honor of San Benedetto as a home for the Carmelite fathers and is now the International Theological-Biblical Study Center. The tour continues towards the Castle: standing 450 meters above sea level, it is the tallest of Southern Monferrato; it was built between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, and later modified and enlarged; it has a quadrilateral layout with four lateral towers and still preserves the characteristic drawbridge.

Leaving the village and heading towards Molare, we take a small road which leads to the Sanctuary of the Bruceta. The building probably dates back to the time of the Saracen incursions of the ninth century; during one of these attacks a fire broke out from the ashes of a small chapel where a painting of the Madonna on stone was found intact: the population believed it was a miracle and decided to rebuild the chapel calling it "Bruceta". Pilgrimage destination, it was modified several times during the 1800s: today, several Romanesque parts remain, such as the semicircular apse and the bell tower. Since 1808, the sanctuary has enjoyed a special form of plenary indulgence (Jubilee): visitors are granted the remission of sins.

History
Mentioned as Cremenna in a document of 976, Cremolino belonged to the Aleramic Marquises; it passed to the Bosco family and later to the Malaspina. When the last member of the family died, the people of Cremolino submitted themselves to the Marquis of Monferrato. Later, the fiefdom passed to the Sauli, Centurione and Doria families until 1708, the year in which Monferrato entered the domains of the Savoy family. In 1768, Maria Teresa Doria married a Serra and the castle remained in the family until 1985 when it was sold to the Immobiliare Malaspina real estate agency.

Curiosities
One afternoon in the summer of 1947 a long, beautiful and shiny American car arrived in the village. To the amazement of the inhabitants, the Hollywood star Orson Welles got out; he was at the start of his career and had come to visit the cameraman Ubaldo Arata, from Ovada, who was on holidays here with his family.