Torre del Castello di Novi Ligure

via castello - 15067 Novi Ligure (AL)
Parco Castello
E-mail: turismo@comune.noviligure.al.it

The first official record of the existence of Novi is in 1153 and talks of the presence of a castle and a settlement with a fortified position on a rock together with a cluster of houses and shops not protected by the walls. The first images of the castle are from 1594 and show a crenellated tower, which characterised those towns loyal to the emperor, and the walls. In another illustration from 1648 there are two new buildings (the castle house and lodgings for the troops) separated by a narrow passageway that led to the area of the rock and the walls. Up to the middle of the 1400s only the rock and castle were surrounded by the walls, the settlement being surrounded by a moat. The building of the walls which encircled the town probably took place in 1447 when it was under the control of Genoa. The new wall was thinner than the one that surrounded the castle but was reinforced with twenty semi-circular battlemented towers and on the outside of the wall was a moat. During the Austrian War of Succession (1740-1748) the castle was completely abandoned and in 1776 demolished because of the danger it posed, only the tower being left standing albeit reduced by several feet in height and indeed as it remains today. It is square, about 30 metres high and has a series of blind recessed arches at the top, a forerunner of a defensive system that in other castles was to evolve into a jutting feature. During the 1800s most of the outer wall was demolished and the moat filled in and today the underground elements are still visitable.