Those who have already been to Moncalvo know that the Castle is part of the city's identity.
The first document indicating the existence of the castle is a donation to the Lucedio abbey dating back to 1133.
However, the building to which this donation refers is not the castle that has come down to the present day.
The construction of the current Moncalvo castle is in fact to be located in the early fourteenth century.
Its towers, surviving the countless sieges that occurred during the Frank-Spanish war of the seventeenth century, today offer panoramic viewpoints on both the hills and the town, and its walkways an experience in the medieval soul of the city.
The first fortifications were erected by the Graffagni family, a branch of the Visconti del Monferrato, as the first defensive work on the hill that stood between the borders between the committees of Torresana-Monferrato and Asti.
Of course, the Castle had a very different structure from what we know today, as the ancient maps in the historical archives reveal.
The north side in the direction of today's Via Frinco, housed the sacred Gonzaga chapel, while today there is no trace of this building.
In the first two centuries of life the castle assumed mainly a residential function being one of the main headquarters of the Marquis of Monferrato.
Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, the castle structure gradually changed as its housing function was replaced by purely defensive functions.
With the passage of the city of Moncalvo under the dominion of the Savoy, the castle no longer held any importance from a strategic - defensive point of view and began to talk about the destruction of its remains.
In the nineteenth century, the ancient castle, witness of many centuries of history, gradually fell into disrepair and Napoleon in 1812 granted it in partial emphyteusis to the Municipality that will definitively buy it in 1858 for the sum of 4000 lire.
In 1878 the Municipality decided to demolish most of the remains of the castle to make way for a large square, suitable for the development of markets and fairs, surrounded by an arcade to reduce the ventilation that would sweep it away.
Today there are the two imposing towers overlooking Piazza Antico Castello, connected by the recently restored walkways.
The first tower currently houses La Bottega del Vino di Moncalvo while the other is used as a room for conferences or, on request, for wedding locations.
The walkways are the evocative path that unites them, and since October 2019 they have been home to the tourist office.
Local themed photographic exhibitions are organized both in the walkways and in the tower.
In the tower, civil weddings are also celebrated.
