Attractions and Places To See around San Giorgio Monferrato - Top 20

The term “Servizio Movimentazione Carrelli e Gallerie della Marna” appears in some hiking routes or local tours, for example as a stage or point of interest on the route “Rive – country of street art” in the surroundings of Casale Monferrato, where it is mentioned as a place along with other panoramic viewpoints or nature trails.

The German-language television series "Treasures of the World - Heritage of Humanity" - which I highly recommend - is dedicated to short film clips featuring UNESCO World Heritage sites from all continents and eras. This includes the "Sacri Monti" in northern Italy (there are eight of these "Sacred Mountains" in Piedmont, and a ninth in Lombardy), which are presented to culture-loving viewers in a 15-minute segment. This can be accessed in the ARD Media Library at the following link =>> https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/schaetze-der-welt/heilige-berge-in-piemont-italien-folge-396/3sat/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS84ODgxMzc2

On the top of a hill immersed in a splendid landscape of vineyards, stands the Sacro Monte di Crea, founded in 1589. Inspired by the Sacro Monte di Varallo, it was born as a pilgrimage destination and today it is an enchanting place, perfect for walking among the greenery of the protected nature reserve. Along the route you will encounter 23 chapels and 5 hermitages, among which the evocative chapel of Paradise, dedicated to the Coronation of Mary, stands out. From here, your gaze is lost in a breathtaking panorama that embraces the Alpine chain and the surrounding rolling hills.

Why is there a Piazza Australia in Conzano? To solve the mystery we must go back in time more than a hundred years, to the end of the 19th century, during the Great Depression. The economic difficulties of the time pushed many people to abandon their homeland to seek fortune elsewhere. In that period, many Conzano residents moved to northern Queensland, Australia, to work cutting sugar cane: in this activity, in fact, the skills acquired in growing vines, typical of these areas of Monferrato, were useful. A strong bond has been maintained over time between the local Conzano community and the expatriate Conzano community: so in 1992 the town chose to pay tribute to its emigrant fellow citizens by changing the name of the square, from Piazza d’Armi to Piazza Australia.

In the heart of Monferrato, on the top of a hill surrounded by a wonderful wine-growing landscape, stands the Sacro Monte di Crea, founded in 1589 on the initiative of Costantino Massino, Lateran prior of the Sanctuary of the Madonna Assunta. Costantino Massino proposed building a religious itinerary inspired by the Sacro Monte di Varallo, to encourage prayer and meditation and to renew the Marian devotion linked to the Sanctuary, a pilgrimage destination of considerable importance since the 11th century. The strong bond between the sanctuary and the ruling dynasty in Monferrato made the duke, the nobility, the high clergy and the local communities participate in the enterprise. In the first phase of the history of the Sacro Monte, which ended around 1657, important artists also active in the Sacri Monti of Orta, Varallo and Varese worked there, including Moncalvo, the Prestinari and the de Wespin, authors of the spectacular sculptural complex of the Chapel of Paradise (c. 23), created in the years between 1604 and 1612. During the 18th century, the Sacro Monte gradually fell into a state of abandonment and, between 1796 and 1801, the incursions of the French revolutionary troops contributed to the ruin of many structures, statues and frescoes. For several decades, the Sacro Monte was abandoned and only in 1820 a community of Franciscan friars, who had become responsible for the Sanctuary, began to restore some buildings. In 1885, a systematic restoration campaign began, supported by the bishop of Milan Nazari di Calabiana and destined to last until the 1920s. During this phase, in which some buildings were built from scratch, the famous symbolist sculptor Leonardo Bistolfi intervened in chapel 16, modeling the statues of the Ascent to Calvary. (c) https://www.sacrimonti.org/it/sacro-monte-di-crea

We are in the heart of the territory that between the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, thanks to its geological conformation, gave birth to the Italian cement epic; here you can still see the service building for moving the trolleys that transported the marl into the underground tunnels

Around 1900, the extremely wealthy entrepreneur, financier, art collector and patron Riccardo Gualino (1879–1964) began building a neo-Romanesque-neo-Gothic castle in a commanding position over the town. The architect of the building was the engineer Vittorio Tornielli. In 1918, the Castello di Cereseto became one of the residences of the Turin family, where lavish parties were celebrated with guests from the Piedmontese business and financial world, from the Agnelli to the Sella. The fort was inhabited by the family until the second half of the 20th century and is therefore well preserved.

The UNESCO site of the wine-growing landscapes of Langhe, Monferrato and Roero is made up of six areas in the provinces of Alessandria, Asti and Cuneo and twenty-nine municipalities. The areas represent the exceptional quality of the Piedmontese wine-growing landscape and its profound and lively wine culture. The site is characterized by a rich and diversified system of farmhouses, wineries, wine industries, cooperative wineries, public and private wine shops, which in some cases constitute symbolic places for the history and development of national and international viticulture and enology.