Castle of Gabiano

After a nineteenth-century restoration, which erases the original appearance of turquoise fortification, starting from 1907 the castle is subject of careful restoration intervention commissioned by the owners, Giacomo Durazzo Pallavicini and Matilde Giustiniani, to the architect Lamberto Cusani (Parma 1877-1966) that works a philologic reconstruction of the castle and the medieval village with its agricultural buildings and wineries, translating with great skill the teachings of Alfredo d'Andrade, creator of the famous castle and medieval village in the park of Valentino, built on occasion of the Italian General Exhibition of 1884.
Remaining in the Turin model, they are found in the vestibule, in the chapel, in the medieval dining room and in the brand room, whose furnishings are made, on a model of the bedroom of the Bonoris Castle of Montichiari in Brescia, by the brothers Arboletti, known Turin carvings, already active in the medieval village.

For the decorations of the Cusani castle, he calls from Parma the sculptors Dossena and Rossi and the painters Tito Peretti and Latin Barilli. The latter painted, between 1929 and 1930, the chapel, the playroom, the weapons room and the riding room where the patrons, Matilde and Giacomo Durazzo are portrayed in medieval dresses.

The restoration of the castle, begun in 1908 by the Marquis Giacomo Durazzo Pallavicini and carried out in 1935 by the marquis Matilde Durazzo Pallavicini of the Giustiniani principles, remains an interesting example of medieval reinterpretation in an eclectic key, still preserved both in the interior furnishings in style and in the surrounding park, of great landscape value.

Today the work continues with his nephew Giacomo Cattaneo Adorno, who, together with Emanuela and her children Filippo and Serena, conducted a careful renovation of the environment, combining current knowledge of oenology with respect for tradition.

Already awarded with gold medal at the 1937 Universal Exhibition in Paris, Gabiano DOC is present today with a renewed quality structure where the rich tradition of new Piedmontese technology, aligns the barber to the noblest Piedmontese red wines. Gabiano wine is one of the oldest and smallest DOC in Italy.

The Marquis Adorno are engaged in intense quality wine production with a company that extends over the territory of Gabiano for 260 hectares of which 20 are destined to vineyard: wine production favours low yields and bottling takes place only in large vintages to ensure the best quality of wines.

The vineyards are grown at the ideal height of 300 m, on the hills well exposed in the municipalities of Gabiano And Moncestino, in the province of Alessandria. The type of cultivation is called "low guyot", with rows that curve around the hill, following the level curves of the hill. The new vineyards that extend around the castle, forming an evocative amphitheater, are cultivated using rittocchino methods. The cultivation of the vine still requires many manual interventions to obtain the best quality of the grapes, with full respect for the environment and the consumer.

In the ancient cellars under the castle, the variegated winemaking processes start: already at the disgrace, the products obtained are “assembled” according to the tradition of the house, constituting the bases for the wines Gabiano, Rubino, Barbera and Grignolino, which are then aged and aged, both in small barrels and in large barriques.

The maze of the castle Gabiano is one of the rare examples documented in the historical gardens of Piemonte. Its importance is due not only to its rarity, but also to the historical period in which it was realized or the 1930s, period in which the now established landscape taste was integrated with formal gardens located in the immediate vicinity of the residence, but never with the forms of a labyrinth.

The labyrinth of Gabiano evokes the return to the past and is located within the framework of the restoration project entrusted by the marquis Matilde Giustiniani to the Parmesan architect Lamberto Cusani. The location of the labyrinth in the heart of the park emphasizes the contrast between the rigid and geometric lines of the plant and the natural park surrounding it, recalling the medieval concept of wild as a natural maze (park) and maze as an artificial wild where nature is strictly manipulated and controlled by man.

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