Gancia Castle ex Scarampi-Crivelli

Currently private property of the family Gancia, it has a long and important history.
Built to protect the trade route that connected Asti the harbor of Savona, over the centuries, the building, modernized and enlarged, is embellished with sculptural and architectural elements.
The Asinari, bought the fief of Canelli in 1335, they did not alter the structure of the castle, but their successors, the Scarampi, sensitive to the charm of the Renaissance culture, made important improvements and "modernizations" between the 15th and 16th century, of which eloquent sculptural and architectural fragments miraculously come down to us.
The Castle, with its fortifications, will be largely dismantled in 1617 during the war of succession of Montferrat by Spanish troops but some structures must be incorporated in subsequent restorations were.
So the Ghilini narrates the fact: «…the capture of these sites gave occasion to the Marqués de Mortara to abandon Cain and withdraw its people from Langhe… and then alli 20, day of San Bernardino, He gave orders that you did a mine to it place… the show truly worthy of compassion, Since that Castle for beauty and neatness to improperly fortress qualsiavoglia more, and had all the qualities and excellence they can do dear and reported a place: among other wonderful delights that made him special was the garden, of every kind of fruit and copious delights…»
The recovery work began soon and already before the 1626 «It is in these times of war it is fortified, et si are reparate the walls around».
The castle, According to the Vergano, It was rebuilt starting from 1676 by one of the last Marquis Crivelli Scarampi; Although more than a rebuilt it was a «restoration», with embellishments, work on repairs after the damage of the 1617.
Interesting is the description of the Castle, performed upon delivery to Galleani, that, compared to the plants of the restoration work performed by the architect Midana, in the years 1929-30, seems to confirm that the Castle came up to us and the seventeenth-century. This is the description: «Cave castle, consisting of a ground floor, kitchen with three rooms above, half ruined by French soldiers; six exhibition rooms on the piano nobile and six other rooms on the top floor… »
The complex in 1929 It was purchased by the family Gancia and in 1930 the arch. Arturo Midana was in charge of its restructuring. The project of the architect saw the addition of two wings to the original square plan, by attributing to the Castle a symmetric rigour and at the same time a reference to the ancient towers. In the two new bodies are mainly apartments and location services, leaving in this way virtually intact the other rooms from. The intent of Midana were those of the Château style of the end of ' 600, and so it was also for interiors, where careful research for contemporary furniture gives the rooms a harmonious variety of environments; the decorations of the painter Olindo and numerous polychrome stucco ceilings are also 17th century style.
Important was the external arrangement of the surrounding areas; the creation of the Italian garden in fact, the building shows the 17th-century splendor, as the Ghilini refers in its written; the Conciergerie, made from rugged terrain toward the street, is harmoniously connected to an existing chapel. On the other side an old building was adapted from Midana for garage.
The result is a strict respect for what could be the Castle before they tore it down Spanish troops.