Comune
Colleretto Castelnuovo arose in an area inhabited in the mists of time by the Celtic people of the Salassi. The Salassi fought for 118 years, but at the end of the 1st century B.C. the whole area was occupied after the intervention of Aulus Marron, lieutenant of Emperor Octavian Augustus. Some Celtic clay artefacts have been recovered within the Colleretto municipal area, and many names and words in the current dialect are certainly attributed to the Celtic language.
The long history of the village then passed through the rule of the Counts of San Martino, heirs of Arduino d’Ivrea, who had the castle built in the 13th century. Its walls, as is often the case, exert a certain charm on visitors. The structure was damaged several times, first during the Turchini revolt and later in the conflict between the San Martino and Valperga families. French troops also played their part in the 16th century. The castle originally covered an area of about 1250 square metres. Today, the round tower remains visible on the south-east side, the only part dating back to the medieval period, and towards the north the 19th-century building built on the ruins of the previous ones, with frescoed rooms and splendid cellars, with a tunnel connecting them to the parish church.
In 1707, a small Sanctuary was built on the hill known as Crosilietto (today St Elisabeth) due to a series of miracles well described in a document of the time. In 1796, the present Sanctuary of St Elisabeth was built alongside it, dedicated to Our Lady of the Visitation, which houses a beautiful icon depicting the ’Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St Elisabeth’, painted by the well-known painter Defendente Peraracino of Celino in Valsesia. The sanctuary of Sant’Elisabetta is well worth a trip. You get there by driving along a road with steep hairpin bends up to a panoramic hillock where the view sweeps over the Canavese and the Turin plain.
The long history of the village then passed through the rule of the Counts of San Martino, heirs of Arduino d’Ivrea, who had the castle built in the 13th century. Its walls, as is often the case, exert a certain charm on visitors. The structure was damaged several times, first during the Turchini revolt and later in the conflict between the San Martino and Valperga families. French troops also played their part in the 16th century. The castle originally covered an area of about 1250 square metres. Today, the round tower remains visible on the south-east side, the only part dating back to the medieval period, and towards the north the 19th-century building built on the ruins of the previous ones, with frescoed rooms and splendid cellars, with a tunnel connecting them to the parish church.
In 1707, a small Sanctuary was built on the hill known as Crosilietto (today St Elisabeth) due to a series of miracles well described in a document of the time. In 1796, the present Sanctuary of St Elisabeth was built alongside it, dedicated to Our Lady of the Visitation, which houses a beautiful icon depicting the ’Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St Elisabeth’, painted by the well-known painter Defendente Peraracino of Celino in Valsesia. The sanctuary of Sant’Elisabetta is well worth a trip. You get there by driving along a road with steep hairpin bends up to a panoramic hillock where the view sweeps over the Canavese and the Turin plain.
Contacts
Via Adolfo Ghella 13, 10080 Colleretto Castelnuovo (TO)
It houses