The main resource is agriculture, mainly aimed at the cultivation of vines (with production of Barbera and Nebbiolo) and peaches, which create a lively market.
Castellinaldo can undoubtedly be defined as the most visited village in the Roero, with its 63% of the territory cultivated with vineyards.
Setting your gaze from the highest points towards the valleys and the underlying ridges allows you to grasp the vision of an agricultural landscape that is a true, splendid work of art with geometry and sinuous lines.
The wineries and the “Bottega del Vino” invite to the tasting of the excellent local wines. Vegetables and fruit complete the quality offer of these lands.
In fact, in addition to the excellent quality of the wines produced here, Castellinaldo also stands out for its vegetables and fruit.
This is thanks to the territory in which the municipality is located, which can be distinguished in two distinct areas:
• South / East, the slopes are not very accentuated, the soil is sandy-sandy and rich in limestone (up to 50%), which makes the wines of the area generous and powerful;
• North / West, the slopes are more marked, there are more woods and the soil is more sandy, an element that makes the wines of the area fresher and more mineral.
Curiosity of the place is the Feast of “square bowls”, a square-shaped bowls tournament, congenial to be used along the steep streets of the town
.
HISTORY BITES
It was almost certainly originally a Roman station along the road linking Asti
to Pollenzo. The first settlement was formed on a small saddle near the
Mongallettobric, on the site where the disappeared parish church of San
Dalmazzo. Minor appropriations, belonging to the territories of Chinchiurio
(Cenciurio) and Sorsono, once separate, flowed after the year 1000 into the
fief of Castellinaldo.
In 1041 the emperor Henry III confirmed the possession of half the place to the bishop of Asti. In 1274 shares of the fiefdom passed to the Pallidi di Asti. At the beginning of the 14th century, the possession of the fiefdoms were divided between the Pallidi and the “Vicia de Castro Aynaldi”. The latter sold their shares to the Malabaila of Asti, while the Pallidi in 1427 and 1429 sold their quota to the Damiano. The coexistence of the two families, with distinct castles, was not always peaceful, just as relations with the Community were tense at times, resulting in a conspiracy against the Malabailas in 1580. The Damiano line ends at the beginning of the 19th century with Carlotta Irene, wife of Giuseppe AnnibaledeiFaussone di Clavesana, who owns the properties. from these, finally, to the Ripa di Meana. The Malabaila sell their properties in the second half of the 19th century. The castle purchased by the Faussone family was later demolished to transform the site into a garden.
WHAT TO SEE
Castle (private).
Massive building formerly belonging to the Damiani, erected in the early 1500s around a previous tower, severed after the 1887 earthquake. The adjoining Malabaila castle was demolished in the late 1800s.
Church of Saints Dalmazzo and Sebastiano. Parish church, set against the steep slope below the castle, was rebuilt from 1752 to 1756.
Church of S. Servasio. Isolated church, at the top of a hill, a cult “high place” par excellence. Of late Romanesque structure, it preserves a cycle of frescoes dated 1581.