The Marquisate of Saluzzo

The Marquisate of Saluzzo: a Piedmontese feudal power which preserves even today a clear profile: a combination of a luxury building art, of a refined court art and of a civilised life style, which has left its mark in many historical centres.
For centuries this small, but brilliant feudal State represented the link among Piedmont, France and Liguria, assimilating the Gothic style and culture from the other side of the Alps, but also opening itself to the influences of Italian Humanism and Renaissance.
Nowadays in the whole Piedmont there's no place matching in beauty the historical centre of Saluzzo, the small "Siena of the Alps" still wrapped up in the enchanting atmosphere of the 15th century.
A basic itinerary leads us to the Convent of San Giovanni and the Marquis's Chapel, burial place of the Marquises, to the Museum of Casa Cavassa which houses the altarpiece of the Madonna of Mercy by Hans Clemer, to the slope leading to the Castle with the fresco-painted façades of the Town Hall and of the Liberal Arts Palace, to the Cathedral of Our Lady.
Even today the castles of Revello, Castellar, La Morra, Manta, Costigliole, Montemale welcome anybody entering the valleys of the rivers Po, Varaita, Maira, Grana, as strongholds of the Marquis's power.
The main buildings are castles. It's a world full of wine-yards, monasteries and silent villages: in the plain dominates the brick, which in the valleys leaves its place to the ancient and difficult art of carved stone.