Holiday apartment in Ozzano Monferrato – Discover history and industrial heritage

Holiday apartment in Ozzano Monferrato: History and industrial heritage

Ozzano Monferrato is a destination for you if you would like to combine historic buildings, regional craft traditions and the traces of a formative industrial history. The historic village and the Valle Fontanola give the area different facets. When choosing a holiday apartment in Ozzano Monferrato, you can therefore include cultural discoveries, routes through industrial archaeology and a place with a distinctive character in your travel plans.

Castle, churches and distinctive buildings

The origins of the Castello di Ozzano Monferrato are probably connected with the phase of castle construction around the year 1000. The oldest visible section dates from the 15th century and consists of a brick wall with three split merlons at the top. On the eastern side are hanging gardens from the 19th century. The townscape also includes a freestanding brick bell tower approximately 20 metres high, with a square floor plan and leaning against a tuff wall.

The churches, too, preserve important historical and artistic traces. The present structure of Santa Maria Assunta dates from the 18th century; its interior mainly contains altarpieces from the 17th and 18th centuries. The parish church of San Salvatore preserves fragments of 15th- and 16th-century frescoes, some of which are attributed to Spanzotti's workshop. San Salvatore was also recognised by the competent heritage authority as a significant work of art.

Ozzano Monferrato also displays history in less monumental forms. Chiacchierino, also known as frivolité, is an old shuttle-made bobbin- and lace-making craft with an established tradition in the town. Casa Bonaria-Simonetti is considered a rare example of a late Gothic residential building. At MiCeM, a museum on an exhibition area of approximately 250 square metres presents the geological and industrial origins of lime and cement production in the Monferrato Casalese.

Routes through cement history

The Valle del Rio Fontanola is home to architectural and technical evidence of Ozzano Monferrato's lime and cement industry, which developed there between the 19th and 20th centuries. This includes the former Milanese e Azzi plant, built in 1894, with six brick-built vertical kilns: one group consists of four kilns and the other of two. The Valle Fontanola is an area of industrial archaeology relating to cement production, where this industrial history can be discovered and explored.

The circular route “Panorami e Ciminiere” offers an active way to explore the area. It provides panoramic views and leads to numerous buildings that bear witness to the period when Ozzano Monferrato and the surrounding towns were an important centre of cement production. Along the historical and art-historical circular route, preserved traces of the Renaissance walls with brickwork and stepped decorations can be seen; the route also includes the only surviving defensive tower in Ozzano Monferrato.

Practical orientation for your stay

In the hamlet of Lavello, you can park at the railway station. Near the station, there is an information board about the “Panorami e Ciminiere” route, which helps with orientation on this circular route. Ozzano Monferrato is connected to Casale Monferrato by bus services operated by Autolinee STAT Turismo; a line operated by GTT also runs to Turin. You can visit the historic village as part of Castelli Aperti or on a guided tour by prior reservation. This allows you to tailor your choice of holiday apartment to the interests of your travel group: churches and architectural history, industrial archaeology or a panoramic circular route.

Further places for your travel plans: Murisengo, Lu, Guazzolo, Fubine, Brignano, Cadepiaggio, Valenza, Montemarzino.

For the higher-level travel overview: Alessandria.