Verzuolo is the easternmost of the fourteen municipalities the valley consists of. In the 11th century it was a fief of the Signori di Verzuolo in the name of the bishop of Turin, who had suzerainty over it. Passing under the dominion of the Margraves of Saluzzo (1165) it was bestowed on the daughter of Guglielmo di Verzuolo and thus came under the rule of the Margraviate of Ponzone. In 1311 the Margraves of Saluzzo reclaimed it and gave it again as a fief to the Signori di Verzuolo. In 1360 it was a fief of Bernabò Visconti but soon after returned to the Margraviate of Saluzzo. As a part of the latter it came under the rule of the Savoyards in 1601.
The castle was built by Federico II of Saluzzo in the 14th century: the widow of Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy lived here during the last years of her life. Originally the floor plan of the building was square, with four towers at the corners: today only one of them is still erect. The church of the castle, built in 1389, preserves a Romanesque steeple with both simple and double arched windows and frescos dating from the 16th century on its façade. Inside the church of Saint James and Saint Philip a baptismal font dating from the 14th century is conserved.
Verzuolo with its six thousand inhabitants, its big paper mill, its intensive cultivation of fruit like kiwi and peach, is still a humane town. A curiosity: as tradition has it, the district of Villanovetta is the hometown of Griselda, the peasant woman, who became the wife of the noble Margrave of Saluzzo. Her story is told in a novella by Boccaccio (Decameron, X, 10). In Palazzo Drago the centre of the network project “The Trails of Freedom” can be visited as well as the Museum Drago that bears witness of the life of the family of the same name at the end of the 19th century.
Additional Informations Altitude: 420 m
Distance from Cuneo: 25 km
Residential centres and districts: Verzuolo, Falicetto, Villanovetta
Patron saint: Nativity of Mary, September 8
Sport centres: soccer field (via XXV Aprile), tennis (via S. Bernardo), volleyball (via Europa, secondary school), Boccia court
Services: bank, bancomat, pharmacy, children’s playground (via Provinciale Saluzzo e Villanovetta), picnic area (S. Cristina);
Summer sports: hiking, mountain-biking, biking, rock climbing, table tennis
Weekly market: Tuesday
Fairs: Last Tuesday of March and the Tuesday before Christmas; Autumn Fair, first Sunday of November
Municipality: tel. +39 0175/255.111
