Discover Castello di Barolo

The Castello Comunale Falletti di Barolo stands at Piazza Falletti 1, on the high point of a village of a few hundred people in the Langhe hills of the province of Cuneo.

Its history is believed to begin in the 10th century, when Berengario I allowed the local lord to raise an effective defence against the raids of the Hungarians and the Saracens — though no document records the founding, and of that first structure only the keep survives. The first written evidence is 13th-century: a deed transferring the property from the lords of Marcenasco to the comune of Alba, which a few years later passed it to the Falletti. They rebuilt it substantially and made it the permanent seat of a branch of the family.

The Falletti held it for six centuries. The line ended in 1864 with the death of Juliette Colbert, the last marchesa — French-born, and the woman who did more than anyone to turn the local wine into Barolo as it is now understood.

Since 1970 the castle has belonged to the village itself, bought by public subscription. Since 13 September 2010 it has housed the WiMu, and its cellars the Enoteca Regionale del Barolo. The hills around it were inscribed by UNESCO on 22 June 2014 as the Langa of Barolo.

This is not a castle of one date, and it does not pretend to be. Four building campaigns are legible in it.

The medieval core is the keep, the only surviving fragment of the first defensive structure.

The Falletti rebuilding of the 13th century turned a fortification into a residence.

The 16th-century restoration that followed the sack of 1544 is the campaign that gave the castle the form it kept until the 19th century, and it is the source of the decorative work on the piano nobile — the monumental fireplace and its stucco in the Sala degli stemmi belong to it.

The 19th-century conversion is the one that did the damage. When the Opera Pia Barolo turned the castle into a boarding college after 1864, the restructuring was heavy and profoundly altered the structure. What a visitor sees today is therefore a 16th-century residence as edited by a Victorian institution, and the museum route exists partly because the building no longer reads as a single thing.

The furnishings of the piano nobile are late Empire, consistent with the Falletti's last period here rather than with the castle's own date.

The parts were raised in the order the hill allowed. The keep came first, on the high point, as a defence against raiders — the article is explicit that this was its purpose, and that it is the one piece of that build still standing.

The Falletti then expanded around it, converting a defensive work into a house a branch of the family could live in permanently. The restructuring was significant enough that the record treats it as a new building rather than a repair.

After 1544, Giacomo and Manfredo Falletti rebuilt what the sack had destroyed and improved what it had not. The decorative stucco and the great fireplace date from this work.

The last structural campaign was not a castle build at all. Converting the place into the Collegio Barolo meant dormitories, classrooms and circulation for a school, and that is what reshaped the interior. The cellars, by contrast, were restored rather than rebuilt, which is why they can now hold the Enoteca Regionale del Barolo in something close to their original form.

Is the castle a separate visit from the wine museum? No. The WiMu occupies the castle, and the route takes you through the historic rooms — the Salone delle quattro stagioni, the Sala degli stemmi, the marchesa's room, Silvio Pellico's room and the library. One ticket, €9.

How old is it? Both answers you will read are defensible. The tradition puts the first defensive structure in the 10th century, under Berengario I — but no document records the founding, and only the keep survives from it. The first written record is 13th-century, which is why the castle is also described as a building of the Duecento.

Who were the Falletti? The family that held the castle from the 13th century until 1864, and whose name the building still carries. The last of the line here was the marchesa Juliette Colbert.

Why is Silvio Pellico associated with it? After ten years in the Spielberg prison he was introduced to the marchesa by Cesare Balbo, and became her friend, adviser and librarian. The three thousand volumes of the historic library are arranged as he left them.

Can I taste Barolo here? Yes — the route ends in the cellars, where the Enoteca Regionale del Barolo is, and tasting the grand cru is the designed end of the visit.

How long does it take? Allow an hour and a half for the twenty-five rooms, longer if you stop in the cellars.

Is it worth it with children? The price says the museum thinks so: €1 for the first child aged 6–14 with a paying adult, free under 6.