Barolo Castle
The history of the “wine of kings” and its legends arose in this castle.
According to the legend, in the 19th Century about 300 carts, each carrying a big wine barrel, were sent to the Savoy court in Turin, in particular to King Carlo Alberto, who had complained to the Marchesa of Barolo that he had never tasted her wine. The long convoy blocked via Nizza up to the Royal Palace, causing a great fuss: it was the first successful advertising campaign for Barolo.
The castle has often been reshaped over the centuries: it was built as a manor and then turned into an aristocratic summer residence, and when the Marchesa died, it housed the Opera Pia Barolo charity society and was turned into a boarding school (opened in 1857). In 1970, it was bought by the municipality of Barolo thanks to a fund raising campaign.
From 2010 the castle hosts the Wine Museum.
In the interior you can visit the apartments and the furniture dating back to the time of Marchesa Colbert, the coat of arms hall, the bedroom and historic library of Silvio Pellico, who worked for the Fallettis for almost twenty years as secretary and librarian after his terrible experience in the Spielberg prison.
In the other floors the protagonist is the wine, the Barolo wines and their histories.
But not only as a wine: visitors will also be told about its history and culture, and it will be displayed as a tangible document of a civilization with its aromas, colours, producers and wonderful lands.
In the cellars you fill find the Enoteca Regionale del Barolo.
Info: www.wimubarolo.it