In the heart of Monforte d’Alba, a small medieval village in the Langa of Barolo, is preserved the “Saracca,” a tangle of ancient medieval streets that lead to the upper part of the village and wind their way between majestic walls and little squares, an obligatory passage to reach the summit, the historic and millenary core of Monforte. The term Saracca may derive from “saracco”, “portcullis,” referring to the sliding iron grated door that closed the access to the fortified part, which constituted the last fortress of defense of the “proto-Cathars”. The members of this Christian heretical movement had found here a place of refuge from the persecution in the 10th-11th centuries, until in 1028 the fortification was besieged and conquered by the forces of the archbishop of Milan combined with those of the bishop of Asti.
