Almese

the territory of Almese in part flat, develops with its suburbs in the mountain area toward the hill of the Lys and Rubiana. The ancient settlement and important is documented since the roman era thanks to the presence of a villa of the Augustan age in the locality of Grange of Milanere. The complex is situated on a hillside, in high with respect to the facing the plain enough to situarla in a position favorable climatically and of remarkable panoramic interest, ranging from the moraine of Rivoli, Pirchiriano, the mountain of the Alta Valle di Susa, Rocciamelone and the more gentle slopes of Colle del Lys.

The villa, the largest private building of roman age of Northern Italy, was a vast complex of approximately 5,000 square meters and developed on multiple levels, while the villa had two floors built around a large central courtyard porch, surrounded by rooms on three sides. The articulation of these environments is only in part that can be reconstructed from the traces of the foundation walls and by the architectural material precipitates downstream in the collapse that has destroyed the villa, probably in the IV century A.D.

The ancient church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, sort on a hill deviate from Borgo, was replaced by the parish church designed by G. Boschis and built between 1963 and 1966 more spacious and modern. Of the Medieval era is testified by the fortified nucleus of the Ricetto of San Mauro, dating back to the XIV century, in the direction of the hamlet of Rivera. On the north side are still visible part of the ditch, the passage in the masonry to access the borgo, which today replaces the old drawbridge, the embattled walls guelph, the door of access. The tower, whose walls in stone and bricks bear the signs of various rearrangements, is high 26 meters and consists of seven shelves connected by a staircase up to the daring top overview.

Culturally very active, Almese hosts every year in May the literary prize “Giorgio Calcagno”, dedicated to the journalist and writer almesine origin who died in 2004. Among the initiatives related to the food and wine of the territory, instead, the Sagra delle Siole full (onions stuffed) in the hamlet of Rivera that takes place in the month of October with the market of typical products of the territory, gastronomic competitions, tastings.

Many finally the naturalistic itineraries that from Almese lead on the slopes of Monte Musinè, to the sanctuary of the Madonna of the low or the beautiful stretch of water of the Goja of Pis. The Salto del Pis, about 14 meters of height in a basin of about 30 meters in diameter, owes its forms to hundreds of thousands of years of erosion operated by the waters on the rocks particularly harsh that, precisely for this reason, have limited the action of the same waters.