Why Are Monferrato Villages Almost Always Built on Top of the Hills?It is not just about the view
By Simona Gotta - Monfreedom Guide nyone walking through Monferrato notices it almost immediately: many villages seem to rest on the tops of the hills, with a bell tower, a tower or the remains of a castle dominating the skyline.
It is one of the most characteristic images of this landscape. You follow a white country road, cross vineyards or woodland and, when you look up, a village appears gathered along the ridge. At first, you might think it was built there simply because the view is better.
In reality, the position of Monferrato’s villages tells a story of centuries of defence, control of the territory and the organisation of everyday life.
When I guide a group and point out a village standing high on a hill, this is exactly what I like to explain: that village did not end up there by chance. Its position is often one of the first chapters of its history.
We have to imagine a much less secure territory than today.
To understand why so many settlements were built on higher ground, we need to go back mainly to the Middle Ages, when living on the plains or in small isolated communities could mean being far more exposed to raids, conflict and sudden attacks.
Between the 10th and 11th centuries, many areas of northern Italy experienced a process known as incastellamento, the development of fortified settlements around castles and defensive structures. Towers, strongholds and castles began to occupy the most strategically favourable positions, often on hilltops, and houses gradually clustered around these protected areas.
The logic was very practical. From higher ground, danger could be seen earlier, roads and valleys were easier to control and, in the event of an attack, the climb itself became an obstacle for anyone trying to reach the settlement.
In several parts of Monferrato, the first inhabited nucleus therefore developed around a tower or castle. Farmers’ houses moved closer to the fortification because, in times of danger, being able to take shelter inside the walls could make all the difference.
Over time, those houses became villages, the villages expanded and new defensive walls enclosed the homes that had grown around the original stronghold.
Vignale Monferrato clearly shows this evolution
A particularly interesting example is Vignale Monferrato, where even today the structure of the village helps us understand how the original settlement developed.
Its urban growth is closely connected to the process of fortification. Watchtowers were built on the highest points and, over time, some of them became fortified residences for local lords. Homes then began to appear around these structures, gradually protected by walls.
In Vignale, the urban layout still preserves traces of this process: an initial fortified nucleus linked to the castle was later enlarged to include the neighbourhoods that developed around it.
So when you walk through the streets of Vignale today, you are not simply passing through an old village. The shape of the streets still tells the story of how the settlement expanded over the centuries.
This is one of the things a guide can help you recognise: history is not only preserved in monuments, but also in the layout of the roads, in sudden bends, small squares and changes in elevation.
From the hilltops, roads and valleys could be controlled
The elevated position had another essential function: it allowed people to monitor what was happening in the surrounding territory.
Monferrato has always been a strategic area, crossed by important routes and located between different political powers. Over the centuries, the Marquisate of Monferrato was ruled by important dynasties, from the Aleramici to the Palaeologus family and later the Gonzaga, and the region was repeatedly involved in wars and territorial disputes.
In a landscape like this, controlling a hill meant being able to watch a road, a valley, a crossing or a connection between two settlements.
This is why castles and towers were not built simply in the most beautiful places. They needed to see and to be seen.
If we stop on a ridge during a hike and look carefully around us, we can still understand this logic today. From some hilltops, several villages can be seen at the same time, and in many cases one fortified site could visually communicate with another.
The panorama that we now photograph for its beauty once had a very practical function.
San Salvatore Monferrato: moving uphill for greater safety
The history of San Salvatore Monferrato also helps explain this process.
Between the 10th and 11th centuries, during a period marked by raids and instability, a fortified structure was built on the highest hill for defensive purposes. The population of earlier settlements gradually moved towards this safer position, within or very close to the defensive perimeter.
The village thus developed into a fortified centre in a strategic location.
Even today, the famous Paleologa Tower, also known as the Campanone, makes it easy to understand the importance of that position. From the top, the view dominates a vast part of the surrounding territory.
And this strategic function did not belong only to the Middle Ages. In 1859, during the Second Italian War of Independence, Victor Emmanuel II also climbed the tower to observe the movements of Austrian troops.
It is a detail that shows how geography can remain strategically important even centuries later.
The castle often came before the village
When we see a village crowned by a castle today, we tend to imagine that the castle was built later to dominate an already existing settlement.
In many cases, however, the process was more complex.
A tower or fortification could represent the original reference point, while the settlement gradually developed around it. The castle offered protection, but it was also the centre of local power and territorial organisation.
This is how one of the most characteristic features of the Monferrato landscape developed: the close relationship between hill, castle and village.
It is no coincidence that Monferrato still has such an extraordinary number of castles. Driving or walking through the area, you often need only cross from one valley to another before another fortified structure appears on the skyline.
Some still preserve an unmistakably defensive appearance, others were transformed over the centuries into noble residences, while in other cases only towers, walls or fragments incorporated into later buildings remain.
Building on top of a hill also had disadvantages
A high position offered security and control, but it also made everyday life more difficult.
Water, for example, was a major issue. Not every hilltop village had easy access to springs, so wells, cisterns and rainwater collection systems became essential.
Transporting goods, crops, firewood or building materials also required much more effort than in a settlement built on the valley floor.
For many centuries, however, the need for protection and territorial control outweighed these disadvantages.
Even today, when we enter some historic centres, we find steep alleys, narrow passageways, staircases and roads that follow the natural shape of the hill. What looks picturesque to us was, for the people who lived there centuries ago, the result of very specific practical needs.
Bell towers partly replaced the visual role of defensive towers
In today’s Monferrato landscape, it is often the bell tower that tells us from a distance where a village is located.
Walking through the hills, we may not yet see the houses, but we can clearly recognise a church tower rising above the ridge. It almost becomes a natural landmark.
In earlier centuries, the dominant visual feature might have been the castle tower or a watchtower. Later, as villages changed and many fortifications lost their strictly military role, churches and bell towers became increasingly prominent elements of the skyline.
This is why Monferrato so often presents that recognisable silhouette: a cultivated hill, a compact cluster of houses and, rising above everything, a tower or bell tower.
It is a beautiful image to photograph, but it becomes much more interesting once we understand why it took on exactly that form.
Higher ground also meant living away from wetter areas
Defence is not the only reason why higher ground was chosen.
In a territory crossed by streams and valley floors, living on higher ground could also offer better conditions than low-lying areas, which in the past were more exposed to stagnant water, persistent fog and flooding.
Valley floors were valuable for farming and communication routes, but they were not always the best places for permanent settlements.
Higher ground often offered better ventilation, wider visibility and more favourable conditions for housing.
Once again, the shape of the land and human decisions were closely connected.
Vineyards also help us understand how the landscape is organised
Today, when we look across a valley towards a village, we often see houses on the ridge and vineyards spreading down the slopes.
This arrangement has become one of the iconic images of Monferrato.
The village occupies the higher ground, while farmland extends along the hillsides according to exposure, gradient and soil type. Lower down, we may find fields, woodland and streams.
What looks like a perfectly harmonious landscape is actually the result of centuries of adaptation between people and the morphology of the land.
This is why, during a walk, I find it interesting to stop and look at the landscape as a whole. Not just at the village and not just at the vineyard, but at the relationship between the two.
You understand it much better on foot than by arriving directly by car
Reaching a village by car often means suddenly finding yourself in the historic centre without fully understanding the relationship between the settlement and the hill on which it stands.
Arriving on foot is different.
As you climb, the village remains in front of you. You see it change perspective, gradually become closer and physically understand what it meant to build and live in a dominant position.
You can look back at the valley you have crossed, identify other villages on the surrounding hills and appreciate how broad the view from the old towers must have been.
This is one of the reasons why hiking is such a powerful way to understand the history of Monferrato: the landscape is not simply shown to you, it is crossed and experienced.
The climb itself becomes part of the explanation.
Try looking at the next village differently
The next time you are walking in Monferrato and see a village appear on the top of a hill, try not to stop at the photograph.
Look at where it stands.
Observe the valleys it dominates, identify the highest tower, look for traces of old walls or imagine where the original castle may once have stood. Try to spot the other villages visible on the horizon and ask yourself what connections may once have existed between those hilltops.
At that point, the panorama begins to change.
You no longer see only a beautiful village in Piedmont.
You see a place chosen centuries ago because it allowed people to control the surrounding territory, protect the inhabitants and organise life around a secure position.
And this is exactly what I love about Monferrato: the more we learn to read its hills, the more we realise that almost nothing we see is there by chance.
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