Castello di Grinzane Cavour historical timeline

The origins, and the doubt. Historical notices on this castle's origins are extremely scarce, and there are not a few doubts about its construction date. Some place it in the 13th century; others maintain that the construction of the tower goes back to 1350, with the rest belonging to a later period. It is effectively probable that the great tower constituted the primitive nucleus and that the successive bodies completed it.

Around the 15th century. The castle and the surrounding lands belonged to the marchese di Busca, whose noble coats of arms were discovered under the plaster of some rooms.

Then a gap. The castle passed through numerous owners of whom little more than a few notices remain.

1830: Cavour arrives. In the 19th century the castle housed for almost twenty years a figure of the Risorgimento — Camillo Benso, count of Cavour. The statesman came in 1830, a guest of his uncles, the De Tonnerre family.

What he actually did here. Charged with administering these family properties, he showed organisational ability and an openness to new scientific findings, and gave local agriculture a new imprint: he traced canals, adopted new rational systems of cultivation, had two hundred thousand new vines planted, and attempted the cultivation of beetroot.

May 1832 to February 1849. He was appointed mayor of the small comune in May 1832, at twenty-two years old, and held that office until February 1849.

23 October 2010. A new building by the architect Giorgio Teggi was inaugurated, built inside the hill, holding offices, a 60-seat teaching room and a congress hall of over 250 seats. The exhibition Brume di Langa was mounted for the occasion.

2014. The castle became a UNESCO World Heritage site, inscribed on 22 June as one of three Langhe components of the Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont — and the only one of the three that is a building.

19 June 2021. The Museo In Vigna was inaugurated around the castle.

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