AT A GLANCE
Why go?
The Castello-Ricetto di Ghemme is not a single castle but a whole fortified village you can walk into. Built between the 11th and 15th centuries by the people of Ghemme themselves, this rectangular walled enclosure in the Province of Novara, Piedmont, gathers homes, courtyards, vaulted lanes and wine cellars behind a ring of Ghibelline-battlemented walls. It is one of the best-preserved of the region's 'ricetti' and the only example in Piedmont of a complex fortification of this kind.↗↗↗
What makes a stroll here special is that the place is still lived-in and still working: the cobblestones were recently restored and the lighting sets the mood of centuries past, while the very cellars that once sheltered grain and people now rest one of northern Piedmont's most prized wines, the Ghemme DOCG. It is an intimate, atmospheric visit rather than a grand monument tour.↗↗
A village you could shut the gate on
Gheme's position on the banks of the river Sesia was always strategic: it linked the open plain to the mountain valleys of Valsesia and the territories beyond the water toward Biella and the Canavese. Long stretches of fighting followed that geography, and the fortification grew as an answer to it. The Castello-Ricetto was raised between the 11th and 15th centuries on the initiative of the inhabitants of Ghemme, to protect themselves from the raids and sackings of French and Spanish troops and to give people, animals and foodstuffs a refuge in troubled times.
