Savoy Residences
Castello di Pollenzo
Category: Savoy Residences
In 1832, Carlo Alberto carried out an important agricultural undertaking on about 685 hectares. After having cleaned-up unhealthy land, he created a true and proper modern agricultural business with fourteen dairy farms, the restructuring of an ancient castle, and an agrarian agency with vineyards and cantinas to make “a good quality champagne”.
Pollenzo, an ancient Roman installment on the Tanaro River, renewed itself, according to the taste of the time, into the Neo-Gothic style which reigned at European courts, especially in England. Carlo Alberto chose the architects Pelagio Palagi and Ernesto Melano who created ex novo a true and proper hamlet formed by a large four-sided square with porticos, in the center of which, a monumental fountain was placed, and a church. The dairy farm and the remaining spaces took on coherent and coordinated shapes, colors, and materials. Brought back to life by the Slow Food Association, the ancient Tenuta di Pollenzo (Pollenzo’s Estate Farm) has been transformed, within a few years, into an Experimental Agricultural Science Center which includes a hotel, a restaurant, a cantina called “Banca del Vino” containing important wines, and above all, a center of university study, The European Academy of Taste. The sale and the international diffusion of Piedmont products throughout the world, supported by events and initiatives organized by Slow Food, has become an important vector of development and knowledge benefiting Pollenzo. Ancient Roman Pollenzo is now undergoing major digs. Within the hamlet, the remains of the theater and the oval-shaped amphitheater are visible. Along the edges, the small homes built over the centuries that take up the space, are transformed it into flower and vegetable gardens. Savoy’s Pollenzo is, instead, completely different. Along the axis of Via Amedeo di Savoia, homesteads with a central courtyard appear. The Church of San Lorenzo, the square, and Via Carlo Alberto together create, along with the association, a single unit in a markedly Neo-Gothic style.
Information
Associazione turistica Pro Loco “La Torre”
Via Regina Margherita, 28 - 12060 Pollenzo Bra (Cn)
Tel. +39.0172.458284
www.pollenzo.it
