Garessio

Crossed by the Tànaro, Garessio is a group of four hamlets (Borgo Maggiore, Borgo Ponte, Borgo Poggiolo and Borgo Valsorda) in which there are still visible traces of ancient history. The main Borgo Maggiore, once served as a shelter, of which three of the four access gates, Porta Rose (the main one), Porta Jhape and Porta Liazoliorum, and part of the surrounding city wall can be recognised. In the Hall of Frescos in the Town Hall (with 15th-century frescoes from the chapel of S. Maria Maddalena di Cerisola) we visit the Geospeleological City Museum and Historical Archives, with local prehistoric finds from the Grai Cave, African finds from excavations in the Olduwai Gorge and North Africa, marine and terrestrial fossils and a complete skeleton of Ursus Arctos, a Mesopotamian seal from the Sumerian period and Roman finds. Also in Borgo Maggiore, stands the majestic Parish Church of the Assumption, built in the 18th century and rebuilt in 1868. On a wide staircase in the lovely piazza S. Giovanni, stands the namesake church, constructed in the second half of the 1500s. Even older, however, is the church of S. Maria Extra Moenia, of which the first construction dates back to around the year 1000.

In Borgo Ponte you can visit the parish church of S. Caterina, work by Francesco Gallo from 1723-40 with a terracotta façade decorated with four empty niches. In Borgo Poggiolo there are the San Bernardo springs, from which mineralised water flows. Borgo Valsorda, located higher up, it gathers around the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Graces of Valsorda.