Cereseto: sights, history and trails

Country Monferrato Casalese, is located at 280 meters high on the sea level, in province of Alessandria.

The municipality is spread over an area of 1040 hectares. The village is perched on a hill, dominated by the imposing castle. It is located on the right of the road of great communication that connects Asti to Casale Monferrato.

The village of Cereseto probably originated on the hill currently identifiable in the area of Via San Tommaso and via San Grato, between 500 and 600 AD; at this point of the country there was a furnace, or rather, a large oven, where the kneaded land was put to rest in underground cellars and then baked, obtaining brick. The oldest cards preserved at the Capitolar Archive of the Man of Asti mention that around the year 957, the Bishop of Asti, Bruningo, made a change of some real estate located in Cagliano, Serralunga and in the Sabadina Valley with Eldeprando di Cortecomaro, obtaining other goods located on the territories of Cortecomaro ("…quinto campo est a locus ubi codicit seralonga lacente latus terra ursoni est per mensura iusta tabolas; centum nonaganta et duas…"). Cereseto was therefore a small fiefdom of very ancient origins. The town, on documents and parchments written starting from around the year 990, is named as Cirisidum, Cerisido, Circumstance, Cirisido, Cerexeti, Cirese and finally Cereseto, probably for the countless cherry trees that thrived on all the surrounding hills and among the vineyards (Ciresa dialect term)^[4]. Probably, starting from the decade before the year 1000, the country was governed (dominus) from the noble Graseverto family (sometimes in some documents it is named as Braseverto or Branseverto), of Asti origins. In May 999, a document was drawn up which is probably the oldest source that mentions the town of Cereseto: a "diploma" from Otto III in which the assets belonging to the Episcopal Curia of the city of Vercelli are confirmed; the document also contains the names of the followers of King Arduino of Italy (Marquisate of Ivrea), including "Graseverto de Cirisido". In a document dating back to 1003, when Peter the Bishop was in Asti, he was mentioned, as extimator of a permutation of goods, a certain Graseverto. Other information can be found in a diploma of Henry II, where it is read that the Graseverto lived according to Lombard law and had sworn allegiance to the Emperor. In some documents dating back to 1014, that a certain Graseverto, probably relative of the homonymous vassallo, was punished by Emperor Arrigo II. Between 1002 and 1014 there was the struggle between King Arduino and the Emperor; both Peter, Bishop of Asti, and Graseverto participated for King Arduino: it can be deduced from some documents of permutation dating back to the year 1003, where the year of grace of Arduino is reported. In the struggle between King Arduino and Emperor Arrigo II, the latter was won. Cereseto was therefore donated forever "…ideo quod quia legibus perdiderunt legibus nostra sunt legibus sancto Eusebio omnia in perpetuum damnus…" to the bishop of Vercelli, Leo (998-1026), for the damage he had suffered from the followers of the king. On 5 October 1164 Federico I di Svevia (the Barbarossa), in Belfort, confirmed to the Marchese of Monferrato some lands, among which, not expressly appointed, those of Cereseto. From 1358, the municipal statutes were drafted. As in many other municipalities of Monferrato, the city council reunited all laws and regulations that were then in force, including the main norms of a customary nature. The statutes of the municipality were updated with further provisions and with the addition of chapters, the last of which, in order of time, was Chapter No. 94 of 1457, approved by the Marquis. In the last chapters, they are no longer appointed or consuls, nor rectors, as mediators between the Municipality and Marchesato. In the period of publication of the first Statutes, Cereseto was a common lord, born after the dominion and power of the noble class "…ad laudem et magnificentia Ill.mi Principis et D.D. Marchionis Montisferrati ac Condominorum de Cerexeto…". With a sentence of Emperor Charles V, dated 3 November 1536 and signed in Genoa, Monferrato passed under the dominion of the Gonzaga family and precisely to William X. On 3 February 1537 the town was governed, for a short time, by Captain Giovanni Pasquerio. The Monferrato fiefdom of Cereseto, in the year 1587, became a Marquisate and consequently the feudal lord was awarded the title of Marquis.

The stop at Serralunga-Cereseto is located along the Castagnole-Asti-Mortara railway, whose traffic has been suspended since 2012.

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