The Castello Ricetto di Ghemme is a fortified castle built by the local residents to protect against attacks and to serve as a refuge for the population and food supplies. Today, the castle covers an area of 12,000 square meters and has walls about four meters high with battlements partially visible on three of the four sides.
The castle is roughly rectangular, measuring 153 meters in length and 83 meters in width. Access was originally possible only through a tower with a lifting bridge on the short side, facing east. The opposite side, facing the Mora stream, was protected by two cylindrical towers at the corners, of which only the one at the southwest has been preserved until today.
Buildings inside the walls consist of two floors and an attic mezzanine: the ground floor was used to store wine and food, the central floor was used for housing, and the top floor was used as a loft for grain storage. Some buildings feature pointed arches with clay decorations, and some houses have preserved ancient coffered ceilings. One fresco from a high-quality house is now preserved in the civic museums of Novara.
Ghemme DOCG wine is still produced and left to age in the cellars today. Despite massive interventions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the castle-ricetto is one of the best-preserved in the Piedmont region and preserves a suggestive atmosphere.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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