Garessio - Garessio

Garessio is a city of Piedmont.

To know

It is part of the most beautiful villages in Italy. Its mountainous position a short distance from the sea makes it a popular holiday center; it is also famous for the renowned San Bernardo water.

Geographical notes

Its territory straddles the watershed between Piedmont is Liguria, inland behind Albenga; the local language is of Ligurian stock. It is 76 km from Wedge, 47 from Mondovì, 44 from Thousandth, 37 from Albenga, 24 from Ceva

Background

Important finds from Gray and Valdinferno testify to the settlement in the area of ​​prehistoric populations followed by the Liguri Montani and the Vagienni who fought for a long time the Romans of the Municipium of Albenga. The Roman period also left numerous testimonies, including the tombstones of Trappa, of Mindino, a tomb with clay vases, the head of the Roman bridge of Piangranone. The ninth century records the invasion and raids of the Saracens who ravaged Frassineto (current Saint Tropez, Provence) the whole Val Tanaro and the Piedmont southern. With the year 1000, the buildings of churches and monasteries multiplied in the valley. Garessio is incorporated into the Marquisate of Ceva; in 1276 the Marquis Giorgio II the Dwarf granted the Statutes collected later in the famous Book of the chain, currently kept in the Municipal Library. The ruins of the old castle, destroyed by the Savoy towards 1635, remind us of the Middle Ages of the town which over the centuries suffered plagues, looting and destruction by the Genoese, French and Spanish. After the Napoleonic interlude in 1814 Garessio returned under the Savoy and followed its fate.

With the Royal Decree of 11 June 1870, Vittorio Emanuele II granted the title of "City" to Garessio and the right to wear the ancient coat of arms (two black and two horizontal gold stripes parallel to each other, surmounted by the marquis crown).

During the wars of the Risorgimento, and then during the two world wars, there were numerous contributions from men from Garessio. The Second World War saw here famous episodes linked to the Resistance especially in Val Casotto .; the city was awarded the bronze medal for military valor for the struggle for liberation.

How to orient yourself

Neighborhoods

The city is made up of four hamlets: Borgo Maggiore, Borgo Poggiolo, Borgo Ponte and Valsorda.

Its municipal territory also includes the villages of Barchi, Cappello, Cerisola, Deversi, Garessio 2000, Mindino, Mursecco, Piangranone, Trappa and Valdinferno

How to get

By plane

• Milan Malpensa Airport (280 km). 
• Turin Caselle Airport (143 Km), ☎ 39 011 5676361. 
• Cuneo Levaldigi International Airport, Regional road 20, n.1 (Levaldigi - Savigliano), ☎ 39 0172 374374, fax: 39 0172 374300, @[email protected]. 

By car

• Ceva motorway exit on the A6 Turin - Savona motorway
• Provincial Road n.178 Garessio - Pamparato
• Provincial Road 213 Garessio-Calizzano del Colle del Quazzo
• Provincial Road 582 Garessio - Albenga
• State Road 28 Imperia - Garessio - Ceva - Mondovì

On the train

• Garessio railway station. 
• Trappa railway station. 

both on the line Ceva - Ormea

By bus

• Line Imperia - Ormea - Wedge - stops at Garessio and Trappa

How to get around

What see

In the neighborhood of Borgo Maggiore

• Bring roses. It is located at the confluence of the Rio San Giacomo with the Rio San Mauro and marks the beginning of what was the medieval village of 1100; the village was dominated by a castle and surrounded by walls: some testimonies remain. The Porta Reso is the main access to the ancient nucleus and was once equipped with a drawbridge. Of the two towers that flanked it, one has survived and is now incorporated into a house, the other was unfortunately demolished in 1841 to build the road to Albenga. 
• Town Hall, Carrara Square. The architecturally complex building dates back to the end of the seventeenth century. A large portico enlivens the entire long façade, while a mighty central square tower slims the whole building; the tower houses the civic bell and the clock. The Palazzo has incorporated from the left side an ancient building of a Confraternity to house the Salone degli Affreschi with the Geospeleological Museum on the ground floor, and the Civic Art Gallery on the first floor. 
• Church of San Giovanni, Piazza San Giovanni. It stands at the top of a staircase with first grassy, ​​then marble steps. Built at the end of the sixteenth century, it has a single nave with a floor decorated with 18 lunettes decorated by the seventeenth-century local painter Enrietto Ferrino. Mortorio, characteristic local re-enactment in costume of the Passion and death of Christ. 
• Market, Chapel of St. James and Clocharium Tower. It is the oldest part of the village, located uphill along via Cavour, where there are the ancient houses with the premises for the shops, indicating that it was the trade district. and the market. Some houses retain their medieval facades (Martelli House); the square of the market it has a fountain and a gray stone basin. From here you go up a path to the ruins of the castle. Beyond the provincial road stands the chapel of San Giacomo with a seventeenth-century façade, outside the walls. 
• Ruins of the castle. A path that starts from the market square, at the end of Via Cavour, leads to the door of the ancient castle. Nearby you can see the Tower of the hanged man, a quadrangular construction where hangings were carried out. The stone arch leads to a plateau where the castle stood and where you can see the remains of the walls; from here you can enjoy a beautiful view. The castle had been built in the 12th century, and was demolished in the mid-17th century by the Savoy to whom the Garessini had opposed. 
• Jug and Porta Jhape. Under the hill of the castle there is an agglomeration of houses which can be reached from via Montegrappa which is called Jug; among the houses the sixteenth-century building, seat of the Dominican Tertiaries and an ancient manor house (in need of restoration) with a stone portal, remains of frescoes and protruding wrought iron railings are noteworthy. At the bottom of the nucleus you reach the Porta Jiape, joined to the remains of the ancient walls. 
• Church of S. Maria Extra Moenia. Just outside the Jhape gate, the church is presented in the forms in which the numerous renovations and restorations made over time have given it to us. The building is the oldest church in the town; it was built around the year 1000, with an interior with three naves. The Gothic portal with linear splayings, some columns inside and some traces of medieval paintings are preserved from the original construction. Now the building is used for civilian uses. 
• Parish church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The parish church of Borgo Maggiore it has a grandiose aspect and dominates the whole town with its bulk, standing out in the distance when you approach the city. It was originally the Convent of San Domenico, founded at the end of the 15th century. The church, dedicated to San Domenico and San Vincenzo Ferreri, was replaced with the current one in the first twenty years of the eighteenth century. Napoleon suppressed the monastic orders at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the church was sold; purchased by the Municipality in 1862 it was then rebuilt and became a parish with the name of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

The interior preserves the eighteenth-century altarpiece of San Domenico by Peroni di Parma; eighteenth-century statues; an Assumption of Mary into heaven by the Monregalese Vinai which is almost a copy of the Assumption by Titian visible in the Church of the Frari in Venice. 

• Building of the Confraternity of the Batù Porvi, Piazza dei Battuti Porvi. It is an ancient building that was the primitive Chapel of San Giovanni Battista which was the seat of the Confraternity of San Giovanni decollato. It then passed to the Confraternity of the Batù Porvi (small) when the first moved to the church of San Giovanni. 
• Porta Liazoliorum. Massive in size, built in stones and pointed arch, the door through a short alley leads to the heart of the town, Piazza Carrara also known as the town square. 

In the neighborhood Valsorda

• Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie. It is a recent construction (late nineteenth century - early twentieth century) and was built to replace the old sanctuary no longer suitable. The Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie has in fact always been a place of considerable attendance. The new building, equipped with an imposing reinforced concrete dome, houses the painting on the wall of the Madonna delle Grazie which was transferred from the old Sanctuary. 
• Old Shrine. The devotional practices for the Madonna delle Grazie have their roots in distant times, it seems to the fifteenth century after the liberation from a plague. It was then that a first oratory was built, an open chapel with the fresco of the Madonna on the back wall, sitting between two saints, the work of an unknown author. A miracle of 1653 - the healing of a deaf-mute woman - further reinvigorated the popular devotion that had already turned to the chapel for centuries, so much so that a church was built which functioned until the end of the nineteenth century and in the first decade of the twentieth century, when it was supplanted. from the new Sanctuary. Now the old building collects the numerous ex-votos that have accumulated over the centuries, testimony of a popular faith that has never failed. 

In the neighborhood of Borgo Ponte

• Parish Church of Santa Caterina. The primitive parish church dating back to the sixteenth century stood on the banks of the Tanaro; the frequent floods to which it was subject recommended the construction of a new temple in a more sheltered place, which happened between 1723 and 1740.

Built in typical forms of the Piedmontese sacred architecture of the time, with a brick facade, the church has a single nave with three side altars on each side; the central side chapels host two sumptuous altars in local eighteenth-century marble; the wooden choir stalls with inlays are from the 17th century and come from the suppressed church of the convent of San Domenico. The statues of the Guardian Angel, the Immaculate Conception, and the baptismal font are also valuable. The picture gallery depicts episodes from the life of the titular saint 

• Portal of the Church of S. Giovanni. The church of San Giovanni was built in 1121; remains the valuable stone portal with small colonnades and the remains of a fresco by Risen Christ; on the facade remains of frescoes of San Giovanni; the bell tower is sail. In the nineteenth century the building was sold to house the kindergarten. 

In the neighborhood of Borgo Poggiolo

• Parish church of Sant'Antonio da Padova. The single nave church was built between 1651 and 1668; it houses an imposing and elaborate marble altar in the presbytery; the interior preserves nineteenth-century works and frescoes. 

In Garessio

• Garessio Castle. The Savoy family bought the complex of the ancient Certosa and began the adaptation and recovery works. The part of the monastery did not fit into the recovery plan and soon fell into disrepair. The chapel and the guesthouse were restored and can still be visited today.

The castle remained the property of the royal family from 1837 to 1881 when it was sold to private individuals. Carlo Alberto was the first to begin its recovery to use it as a hunting castle and summer residence. Vittorio Emanuele II made more frequent use of it with the whole family. 

In Barchi Sottana

• Tower of the Saracens. At an altitude of 893 meters stands the Tower, nine meters high and with an internal diameter of three meters. Now it is uncovered; it was probably even higher in the past.

It was born before the year 1000, when in the 9th and beginning of the 10th centuries the Saracens, based in Frassineto (Saint Tropez), made raids from Liguria until it invades the bass Piedmont; they used the tower as a lookout and shelter place. According to some scholars, the tower is actually connected to the last years of the Roman Empire, when in the sixth century the emperors of Byzantium, to counter the invasion of the Barbarians, had a line of watchtowers defenses in the Tanaro valley on the right bank of the river. The tower was restored in 2000 and is now accessible. 

Events and parties

• Feast of the Garessina chestnut. In october. Event that promotes the typical product of garessio. 

What to do

• Garessio 2000 ski resort, Colle di Casotto, ☎ 39 339 5704744, @[email protected]. The ski resort of Garessio 2000 was born in the second half of the seventies and is located on the Colle di Casotto at an altitude of 1370 m, 12 km from the center of Garessio.

There are 4 ski lifts including 3 ski lifts and a two-seater chairlift with an hourly capacity of 1200 people. The ski slopes still served by ski lifts are developed on the slopes of the Berlin, Mussiglione and Grosso mountains that look towards the Val Casotto. Altimetrically, it goes from about 1300 meters to almost 2000 meters which meet near Mount Mussiglione. There are ten tracks in total, six of which are classified as easy, two medium and two difficult. 

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

• Pizzeria Ristorante Aleramo, Via Lepetit 30, ☎ 39 0174 803078. 1, 
• Pizzeria Restaurant Cotton Factory, Via Nazionale 10 (In the hamlet of Trappa), ☎ 39 377 1730681. 
• Pizzeria Ristorante Il Farinello, Viale Casimiro Marro, ☎ 39 0174 81365. 
• La Selva Oscura Restaurant, Via Nazionale 11 (In the hamlet of Trappa), ☎ 39 0174 89254. 
• Pizzeria Ristorante La Margherita, 121 Lepetit Street, ☎ 39 0174 678061. 
• Borgo Antico restaurant, Carrara Square 140, ☎ 39 174809851. 

Where stay

Camper rest area

• Camper area (next to the sports field). Free access. Illuminated, with drinking water and close to the center 

Safety

Pharmacies

• Manfredi, Via Vittorio Emanuele, 86, ☎ 39 0174 81015. 
• Pharmacy, Via Federici, 45, ☎ 39 0174 81039. 
• Pharmacy, Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, 2, ☎ 39 0174 8100. 

How to keep in touch

Post office

• Italian post, via Garibaldi 26 (in Borgo Ponte), ☎ 39 0174 81003, fax: 39 0174 81682. 
• Italian post, via Cavour 111 (in Borgo Piave), ☎ 39 0174 81124, fax: 39 0174 81124. 

Around

• Albenga
• Mondovì
• Ceva
• Thousandth

Useful information

• Pro Loco, Statute Course 1, ☎ 39 0174 803145, fax: 39 0174 803145, @[email protected]. 

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Garessio
• Commons contains images or other files on Garessio

Usable : the article respects the characteristics of a draft but in addition it contains enough information to allow a short visit to the city. Use i correctly listing (the right type in the right sections).