Saluzzo is a town of 17,000 inhabitants at the foot of the Monviso massif in southern Piedmont, 60km south of Turin. It was the capital of the independent Marquisate of Saluzzo from 1142 to 1601, an autonomous state that maintained its independence between France and Savoy for four and a half centuries and produced a court culture that attracted poets, humanists, and artists throughout the 15th-16th centuries. The medieval center that this court produced, red-brick streets climbing the hill to the castle, Gothic churches, the loggia of the Palazzo del Comune, is the most complete example of Piedmontese Gothic civic architecture surviving anywhere. And the Castello della Manta, 5km outside town, contains a series of late-medieval secular frescoes (the Fountain of Youth, the Nine Heroes and Nine Heroines) that are among the finest examples of late-Gothic courtly art in Italy. Saluzzo is seriously undervisited. This is geography: it isn't on the way to anything internationally famous. It should be a destination in its own right.
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The Medieval Center
The historic center of Saluzzo climbs from the lower town (19th-century) to the castle at the summit along Via Volta, Via Castello, and the connected lanes, all in the warm orange-red brick that characterises Piedmontese Gothic. The key monuments: the Castello di Saluzzo (14th-15th century, partially restored, museum of local history), the Cathedral of San Giovanni (Gothic nave, Renaissance chapels, contains the tomb of the Marquis Ludovico II by Matteo Sanmicheli, 1504), the Casa Cavassa (a late-15th century palazzo that is the finest example of Piedmontese Renaissance domestic architecture, now a museum, with original furniture and a Virgin with Child attributed to Hans Clemer, one of the few Flemish masters documented in Piedmont), and the Pinacoteca Civica. The walk from the lower town to the castle takes 20 minutes on foot through streets that have changed little since the marquessate's heyday.
Castello della Manta and the Frescoes
The Castello della Manta (5km south of Saluzzo, managed by FAI. Fondo Ambiente Italiano) contains the most significant secular fresco cycle in Piedmont: the Baron's Hall is painted with the Fountain of Youth and the Procession of the Nine Heroes and Nine Heroines, executed around 1420 by an unknown painter (identified in the scholarship as the "Maestro della Manta"). The frescoes show the late-Gothic international style at its most refined, elongated figures in elaborate courtly dress, heraldic details, landscape backgrounds that mix observation and convention. The Fountain of Youth is particularly extraordinary: figures of several ages approach and immerse themselves, emerging young on the other side, one of the most complete visual treatments of this medieval allegorical theme. Ticket €12 (FAI members free). The castle is open Wednesday-Sunday. Check fondoambiente.it for current hours.
Questions About Saluzzo
How do I get to Saluzzo?
By car from Turin: 60km on the A6 motorway toward Savona, exit Marene, then SP662, approximately 50 minutes. By train: regional service from Turin Porta Nuova via Cavallermaggiore (1h30, with connection). By bus: GTT service from Turin. Saluzzo is 30km from Cuneo (itself an interesting Piedmontese city), the combination makes a good day trip from either base.
What is the cycling connection to Saluzzo?
Saluzzo is the starting point of some of the most celebrated Alpine cycling climbs in Italy, the Colle dell'Agnello (2,744m, one of the highest paved passes in the Alps, on the French border), the Colle di Sampeyre, and the Colle della Lombarda. The area regularly appears in the Giro d'Italia route. The Granfondo Fausto Coppi (annual sportive race, June) starts in Cuneo and passes through the Saluzzo area. For non-competitive cycling, the valley roads from Saluzzo toward Monviso are among the most scenic in the western Alps.
