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Cairo Montenotte Castle - Del Carretto - Scarampi Castle

The Cairo Montenotte Castle, also called Del Carretto - Scarampi Castle to distinguish it from the "Castellazzo" and the castle of the Carretto hamlet, was a defensive building located in a dominant position over the village of Cairo Montenotte, in the upper Bormida valley, in the province of Savona.

The castle was presumably built in a period between the 11th and 12th centuries and became the home of Ottone Del Carretto after the division between Ottone and Henry II of the dominions of his father Enrico I Del Carretto, known as the Guercio, who died between 1184 and 1186. The construction of the fortress-residence was quite strategic as it dominated the village of Cairo and above all the commercial road that led to the towns of Cortemilia, Alba and Asti, the so-called Magistra Langarum.

In 1214 the Marquis Otto I ceded his lands to the Republic of Genoa, consolidating his power in the Bormida valley, and obtaining in exchange the official investiture from the Genoese. The 13th century was a period of prosperity and celebrity for the village of Cairo and its castle as it received the visit or passage of numerous well-known personalities of the time including Corradino di Svevia in 1268, the latter related to the Del Carretto family, or poets, minstrels and troubadours such as Folquet de Romans, Pietro de la Mula and Arnaut Daniel (cited as Arnaldo in Dante Alighieri's Purgatory).

Map: Cairo Montenotte Castle - Del Carretto - Scarampi Castle