Viarigi: sights, history and trails

• Signal Tower. In the period around 1320 is the construction of the Tower of Signals Viarigi, on the ruins of the ancient castle, when the territory of Viarigi was returned to the Teodoro di Marquis Monferrato by Matteo Visconti and became, as a border area of the marquisate, an integral part of a network of defence and communication, based on a system of towers and points clearly visible from the surrounding hills (including also Montemagno, Grana, Casorzo, Grazzano, Moncalvo and Rinco, north, Vignale, Carnagna, Lu, San Salvatore south). The tower, linked to the property of the manor Viarigino, underwent several passages of ownership to nobles of the Marchesato del Monferrato, by Alberto di Solero (1431), to the accounts Biglione di Viarigi (1772), while, at the time of the last feudatario, Viarigi had already passed to Casa Savoia, with the Treaty of Vienna of 1703. The Counts Biglione were the aces of the poet Agostino della Sala Spada, born in Calliano in 1842, who sang in his verses the rolling hills of Monferrato and the "rower square, over the arduous hill" that was so dear to him. With the French revolution and subsequent Napoleonic occupation, the fiefs and the Biglione had to cede their entire property to the Jewish family of Sacerdote Vita, a merchant of Casale Monferrato. At about half of 1800, the Tower and the adjacent area passed to the Ferraris family Viarigi that it held until 1939 when, following public enchanted, it was detected by Cav. Aldo Todini. It remained to the Todini family until 1998, when a Milan benefactor, Pietro Bellettato, bought it to give it to the Municipality of Milan. Viarigi. The Tower of Signals was declared a monumental building in 1908 and, subsequently, placed under bond according to Law 1089/1939. He was later transcribed to the Ministry of Public Education on 11/04/1943. The construction is not in the original facies of the medieval low but it is the result of stratifications of interventions after the original construction. The most important of these, which took place around the middle of the nineteenth century, coincides with the construction of a brick covering on the four sides of the tower, in order to cover and restore the existing fifth walls.^[5]

• Church of San Marziano. A news about the church of Viarigi dates back to the already mentioned document of 1041 when Emperor Henry lIl, in confirming to the Bishop of Asti the heritage of his church, includes in the list the court of Viarigi with the castle and the chapel. A later reference, always without precise indication of titration, is found in act of 1238 on the occasion of the gathering of the Lords of Viarigi, Vassalli of the Bishop of Asti under the porch of the Church and in the presence of a priest of the same. Only in 1345 was he able to know the number and dedications of the churches of Viarigi. In the diocesan register in fact San Marziano appears together with Saint Peter and another church that is in the woods of Viarigi {here east in boscis de Viarixio} not better specified, all independent from pievana jurisdiction. A fourth, finally, San Severio (now San Silverio), belongs to Azzano d'Asti. Of all of them, San Marziano appears the least endowed, having only 3 lire in its register, compared to 35, 46 and 16 in the other churches. The independence from each parish can perhaps be explained by the particular political situation of its castle, a bishop's fief on the borders of the Diocese dependent directly on the Bishop. The lack of importance it had subsequently, when the Parishes of San Silverio and San Pietro had established themselves, did not allow significant traces to be left in the documentation.

• Church of San Silverio. The church of San Silverio is located on the site previously occupied by a fourteenth century church dependent onAzzano d'Asti. The first news of this monument, built on a Greek cross, dates back to 1473. The building, in late Baroque style, took on its recent forms with the expansion carried out in 1870. Deconsecrated, it is municipal property. In 1998, the consolidation and restoration works on the façade and external walls began while the roof had already been renewed previously. The furnishings are totally missing as they have been lost over the years. The wooden portal, entirely sculpted, and part of the mosaic floors remain, currently covered awaiting restoration work. The patronymic Silverio derives from Latin Silvanus with the meaning of the one who loves the wild, also used in the female form Silveria. On June 20th, in memory of Saint Silverius the pope, martyred in the year 537 perhaps on the island of Ponza, patron of Frosinone.
• Ancient Voltone. The Voltone extends under the parish church. It represents a part of the walls that enclosed the ancient inhabited in medieval times.

Between 1900 and 1935 Viarigi was served by the Asti-Montemagno-Altavilla tramway.

The extra-urban transport of the Municipality of Viarigi is carried out by the company Bus Company (formerly ARFEA - acronym for Companies Gathered Filovie and Autolinee).

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