The Gabiano Castle, on the Monferrato hills dominating the Po valley, whose origins date back to the 9th century, has been owned by the Durazzo family, Marquises of Gabiano, for four centuries.
The echoes of a thousand years of history resonate in the rooms of the manor. Its walls, as well as the decorative apparatus of the interior, tell the story of the transformation of the role of the Castle: born in the Early Middle Ages to control the traffic that crossed the Po destined for Northern Europe, donated with a deed of 805, Cortem Magnam Nomine Gabianam,by Charlemagne to Frontinus, archbishop of Vercelli, it then took on a defensive function, becoming in the Renaissance the residence of the dominant dynasties of the Monferrato, the Montiglio, the Alerami, then passing to the Paleologus of Byzantine origin, the Gonzaga and finally the Durazzo.
In 1245, celebrations were held in Gabiano Castle for the victory of the coalition of Monferrato Comuni at the Battle of Gamerario, which marked the end of the Guelph presence in Piedmont.
The Durazzos, originally from Albania, reached Italy in the fourteenth century, fleeing from the Ottoman occupation. They settled in Genoa, where they soon established themselves as traders and bankers and set out to become the second most important family, after the Spinolas.
Agostino Durazzo, who was assigned the medieval village as a fief in 1624, together with the title of marquis. Starting from that date, the family's events are inextricably intertwined with those of the Gabiano Castle which Agostino's children and grandchildren will take care of restoring to its ancient splendor and embellishing with decorations, frescoes, gardens, and even a labyrinth. Universally known as passionate botanists, they immediately valorized the local winemaking tradition, known for its excellence, of which there are testimonies dating back to before the year 1000.
In addition to all the important vintages of the local Gabiano wine since 1946, the nineteenth-century bottles of wines coming from Generalife Estate , from the Alhambra in Granada, are preserved in the” infernotto”, a legacy of the role played by the family in the Spanish "Reconquista".
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