Camino: sights, history and trails

It was an ancient fief of the bishops of Asti and later of the Marquis of Monferrato. In 1237 the Marquis Theodor Paleologos wanting to go to Constantinople to help the father Androniko engaged in a long war but not succeeding to have a loan from his father-in-law Opizzino Spinola, he obtained 10 thousand silver florins from the powerful Astigian bankers Thomas and Emanuele Scarampi granting in guarantee the fiefs of Camino and Pontestura. Subsequently Pontestura was redeemed while Camino was sold to the Scarampi family. Tommaso then became feudal lord of Camino, with the sole obligation of vassalage towards the Marquis of Monferrato, and upon his death, probably in 1343, the fiefdom passed to his second son Giorgio who occupied important positions as captain of militias and governor of military places. Giorgio Scarampi's successors, initially lords who later became counts, held important positions in the Duchy of Monferrato in the 16th century.

• Camino Castle

The imposing castle was built in the 11th century (in its interior a stone resembles as the date of construction the 1010). In 1434 he was sieged by the governor of Casale Monferrato Costantino Aranite, who beheaded Scarampo Scarampi, guilty of frequent acts of prepotence to damage the neighboring fiefs.^[7]
Amplified in the 15th century and severely damaged by the French in 1631, the castle was restored towards the end of the 18th century and it was a residence for several members of Casa Savoia. It is part of the group of "Open Castles" in Basso Piemonte and it was location of various films.^[8]

• Church of San Lorenzo, at the top of a scenic staircase
• Church of San Gottardo, near the castle, restored in 2018
• Church of San Pietro, in the hamlet of Castel San Pietro

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  Church of San Lorenzo
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  View of the church San Gottardo
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  Church in the hamlet of Castel San Pietro

The name Fortress of Women is relatively recent, as the oldest known document speaks of Rocca Brusasca, whose possession is confirmed in 1026 by the diploma of Emperor Conrad the Salic to the Abbey of Breme. The most recent lesson instead wants that Rocca And Brusasca are two separate locations^[10]. Moreover, throughout the Middle Ages the monastery will always be defined as "della Rocca".
The current name of Rocca delle Donne, which replaced the previous one, would be linked to the presence of nuns, called as "Domine", from which the name Rocca Domnarum.
The importance of the small monastery, built on a promontory overlooking the river Po, is confirmed in September 1155 by an act between the bishop of Vercelli and the Marquis of Monferrato in claustro di Santa Maria della Roccha.
The first document that attests the existence of the monastery bears the date of 20 February 1167, when the property was of the Benedictines of La Chaise-Dieu, in Alvernia, and concerns a donation of goods by the Marquis Guglielmo di Monferrato.
This generosity is justified by the presence in the convent of his sister Adalasia and her nephew Agnese, who brought the monastic community to an uncommon wealth for the time.
Place of conferences and diplomatic negotiations, the monastery saw the continuous passage of troops along the Po and the devastations that bloodshed the lands of Monferrato during the passage of the Marquisate of Monferrato from Aleramics to the Paleologists.
In 1492, however, Pope Alexander VI signed the ban of the Monastery, with the accusation not historically evidenced by moral misconduct of the nuns, combining all property, rights and privileges to that house of the Clarisses. After several vicissitudes, the convent became a farm estate owned by the Curia of Casale, but could not escape the confiscation of ecclesiastical goods desired by Napoleon Bonaparte who wanted to donate the entire property to the doctor Giovanni Poitier, with the obligation to plant a cypress for each born or unborn son of the emperor^[11].
In the last decades of the 19th century the property, transformed into a civil home, passes to the family Norzi, of Jewish origins, that reconverts it to a flourishing winery, with many bracelets of the surrounding area used here.
In 1944 the whole Norzi family was deported to Dachau, from which it will no longer return.
Today the structure of the former Monastero appears as a farm, with large inner court, large cellars and evident remains of defensive structures overlooking the Po river.^[12]

Below is a table relating to the administrations that have succeeded one another in this municipality.

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  The hamlet of Rocca delle Donne
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  The former parish house of Rocca delle Donne
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  Façade of the castle of Camino
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  Tower of the castle of Camino
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  Detail of the interior of the castle of Camino
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  Another view of the castle of Camino
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  A jester in the castle courtyard
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  Air view on Camino from the castle