Visit Niella Belbo
Exploring the villages in the Alta Langa and the places dear to the writer Beppe Fenoglio should not miss a visit to Niella Belbo, municipality located at 785 m. between the Belbo andBormida valleys .
Its name seems to derive from an herb, the Nigella, an ancient and very common plant of the submontane area that was used both in the kitchen and in home medicine.
Niella Belbo has probably pre-Roman origins and was inhabited by Celtic populations, but there are certain informations about it only starting from 1033 when it was mentioned in the founding act of the S. Maria di Castiglione Abbey in Parma.
Domain of the Marquis of Vasto and fief of the Marquises of Cortemilia during the medieval period it passed under the jurisdiction of Alba and was included in the Marquisate of Bossolasco until 1600 when it was annexed to the Kingdom of Savoy.
Once equipped with a castle, from the medieval period it now retains only a few narrow streets with stone pavement, low walkways, the remains of the walls, a square tower called Saracena, and an arched door called "French Arc" in memory of the passage of a division of 12 thousand men during the first Napoleonic campaign in Italy in 1796.
Other monuments to see in the village are: the Parish Church of S.Giorgio, located in the main square, a 1800 building resulting from a renovation of the previous religious one dated sixteenth century; the remains of the apse of the Batutti Confraternity; the Lower Church, a private chapel which unusually has a terrace instead of the roof.
Moving away from the center of Niella Belbo , along the road leading to Mombarcaro, you can meet the panoramic Madonna dei Monti Sanctuary and, a little further along the route of the Via Crucis, the Monumental Cross erected in 1901 for the Jubilee.
Niella Belbo, however, is also nature, hills and woods.
Trekkers can complete their visit walking on the Panoramic Walk, a path of about 2 km on a dirt road that returns from the Madonna dei Monti Sanctuary to the village passing near the country chapels of S. Bernardino and S. Giovanni.
The view on Niella Belbo, the hills and the flowery fields is guaranteed!
The village was a popular place and scenery for the writer Beppe Fenoglio. In particular, it is mentioned in the trilogy of "Il paese" in reference to characters related to this city. It also seems that for the author, one of the favorite destinations for excursions in this territory was precisely the Madonna dei Monti Sanctuary.