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Grinzane Cavour Castle in Piedmont may have been built in the 13th century or around 1350. The castle includes a large tower, which is thought to be the most ancient part of the construction; the rest of the body has similar features, and therefore it is likely that it was built in the same age.
In the 15th century, the castle and the surrounding were owned by the marquis of Busca, whose heraldic symbols have been found in some rooms, under later plasterings. It was later under several lords, the most famous of which was, in the mid-19th century, Camillo Benso, Conte di Cavour, who resided here starting from 1830. Cavour restored the construction and improved the vine cultivations in the area. In 1832 he became mayor of Grinzane, a position he held until 1849. Cavour was also known as the architect of the Unification of Italy.
The castle currently houses an ethnological museum with original furniture items from the 19th century, and rooms dedicated to Cavour's stay and to Italian wine production. The castle also contains the Cavour Regional Enoteca, created in 1967 to showcase the wines of the famous Langhe region of Piedmont.
The castle has a rectangular plan and a massive appearance, with a large keep, occupying a whole wing, and a U-shaped structure with a series of turrets: two square and two rounded, the latter, added in the 16th century, being pensile.
There are a series of rooms, one of which, called Sala delle Maschere ('Masques Hall'), has a ceiling decorated with 157 panels featuring coat of arms, animals and allegory images celebrating the marriage of Pietrino Falletti, who owned the castle in 1517.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.