Albano Castle: a beautiful Roman building totally abandoned.
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Historically, It seems that this castle could date back to the Roman age: from the Roman era remains in fact a tile with a funerary inscription.
From the tenth century, under the Episcopate of Attone, Albano was among the Vercelli church, and possession of the Bishop of Vercelli was confirmed with the imperial diplomas of Otto III (999) and of Federico Barbarossa (1152) until 1179, when a part was sold to the Municipality of Vercelli.
After being the property of various families (Tizzoni, Avogadro and De Albano), in 1335 the site passed to the Visconti and then to the Savoy around 1407.
In 1621, at the behest of Duke Carlo Emanuele I, Albano (together with Oldenico and Cascine San Giacomo, always in the zone) was erected county of Mercurio Arborio di Gattinara, great chancellor of Charles V of Habsburg, and still today the Castle belongs to the Arborio family of Gattinara.
According to historians, when Albano was under the domination of the Municipality of Vercelli, it was surrounded by an embankment and a moat, along which thorny bushes were planted. A real castle in the XIV – XV century was built.
Some information on the state of the building in 1671 and in particular the existence of houses ruined out of the castle to the east, could attest to the existence of an inhabited area close to the fortified perimeter, probably a shelter, whose existence it is not however documentable.
The castle was renovated in the nineteenth century, but retains ancient parts dating back to the fifteenth century.
The ancient parts of the building are the beautiful square-shaped entrance tower, dating back to the mid-fifteenth century, raised in the seventeenth century with a structure that incorporates the original bifid merlons, with cylindrical angular turret.
As evidence of the importance of the ancient stately building, documentary sources still attest in the seventeenth century the presence of a 12 m wide ditch, which surrounded the entire perimeter of the castle, now filled of water.
