Grognardo: sights, history and trails

The name of the country is mentioned for the first time in the act of foundation and donation of the Abbey of San Quintino in Spigno Monferrato (year 991) with the toponym of Ragnando.

From the top of a hill the village is dominated by the ruins of Grognardo castle.

It is reported that in the sixteenth century, around the fortified building, an agglomeration of houses united to each other interspersed by three doors, allowed, in case of danger, an easy defense of the village and its inhabitants.

In the 11th century, St. Guido, bishop of Acqui built the first church, S. Happy, an erect pieve to affirm Christianity in the countryside.

Grognardo, born probably for defensive reasons on the hill called Poggio, in the Renaissance period, because of the position very favourable to trade, saw the flourishing of the current settlement cited in several notary acts like Villa del Piano.

During World War II, in the period following September 8, 1943 and German occupation, he found refuge in the country the Jewish family of the Urmans (husband and wife). They escaped by miracle to deportation to Genoa, found help in a client occasionally present in that fringente in their clothing store, the 17-year-old Gabriele Garofalo, who quickly accompanied them to Grognardo from the podestà father of the Commune, who immediately offered them help and protection. Presented as their own displaced relatives, the Urmans remained in the village guests of the Garofalo family until Liberation.

On 16 January 1979, the High Honor of Justin among the nations of the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem was awarded to the spouses Francis and Elsa Garofalo.

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