UNESCO
UNESCO in Piedmont
12 towns
Piedmont carries 12 of the UNESCO towns we cover. They cluster in the Cuneo, Torino, and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola provinces.
The three most recognised in our catalogue are Bra, Orta San Giulio, and Agliè. 9 more towns carry the mark alongside them.
Bra
Province: Cuneo · 290 m
A Roero town at 290 meters where Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food in 1986 and the world's first gastronomic university now teaches food systems.
Orta San Giulio
Province: Novara · 294 m
A Lake Orta promontory facing an islet with a Romanesque basilica, plus a UNESCO Sacro Monte of twenty Francis-of-Assisi chapels on the hill above.
Agliè
Province: Torino · 330 m
A Canavese borgo at 330 meters whose Castello Ducale, a UNESCO Savoy residence since 1997, has been held by the d'Agliè since 1259.
Biella
Province: Biella · 417 m
A wool city at 417 meters in the Alpine foothills, where the medieval Piazzo sits above the modern Piano, connected by a funicular since 1885.
Ivrea
Province: Torino · 267 m
Roman Eporedia on the Dora Baltea, Olivetti's twentieth-century industrial city, UNESCO since 2018, where every February three hundred tons of oranges are thrown.
Varallo
Province: Vercelli · 450 m
The capital of Valsesia at 450 meters, the oldest Sacro Monte in Europe and a forty-five-chapel devotional complex on the rock above town.
Domodossola
Province: Verbano-Cusio-Ossola · 272 m
The Ossola capital at 272 meters at the foot of the Simplon Pass, with a UNESCO Sacro Monte on the hill above.
Ghiffa
Province: Verbano-Cusio-Ossola · 201 m
A Lake Maggiore lakeside village whose Sacro Monte della SS. Trinità above town belongs to the UNESCO nine Sacri Monti of Piemonte and Lombardia.
Govone
Province: Cuneo · 301 m
A Roero hill village at 301 meters whose eighteenth-century Savoy royal castle is on the UNESCO Residences list, between Alba and Asti above the Tanaro.
Racconigi
Province: Cuneo · 262 m
A Po-plain town south of Torino built around the UNESCO Castello Reale, the Carignano Savoy residence whose park holds Italy's largest white-stork colony.
Serralunga di Crea
Province: Alessandria · 302 m
A Basso Monferrato commune of 503 holding the Sacro Monte di Crea, a UNESCO Sacri Monti site of 23 chapels around an Eusebian sanctuary.
Venaria Reale
Province: Torino · 269 m
A Savoy town on the edge of Torino, built around the Reggia di Venaria, a UNESCO baroque palace with sixty hectares of gardens.
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From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns to discover
Pieve di Soligo
Province: Treviso
The market town between the Soligo and Lierza rivers in the Prosecco UNESCO zone, birthplace of the twentieth-century poet Andrea Zanzotto.
Vallefoglia
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
A 2014 merger commune at 295 meters in the Foglia valley, born from Colbordolo, birthplace of Raffaello's father, and Sant'Angelo in Lizzola.
Abano Terme
Province: Padova
Europe's oldest thermal town on the Euganean Hills' eastern slope, where 80°C bromo-iodine springs have been drawing bathers since the eighth century BC.
Bosa
Province: Oristano
A colour-washed riverside town on Sardinia's only navigable river, with a Malaspina castle on the hill and the tanneries of Sas Conzas along the Temo.
Castagnole delle Lanze
Province: Asti
An Asti hill town at 298 meters between Langhe and Monferrato, with two Baroque churches and a nineteenth-century astronomical tower.