italian version

Monferrato

Monferrato with its hills, towers and castles has always been a territory with indefinite borders since its origin. Even today it is still very difficult to go back to the place which gave the name to the marquisate.

In the most ancient documents the place-name Monferrato was never used to indicate officially an administrative district, it was rather used to refer to the geographical area on the right side of river Po.
It is only in the XII Century that this place-name began to identify the area which included Casale and Moncalvo and, more generically the area between the rivers Tanaro and Po. Then it started to be used to identify the estates of the homonymous family descending from Aleramo.

Etymology of the name

Besides there are other conjectures about the etymology of the name Monferrato. Some assumes it came from Mons ferax, to indicate the fertility of its soil and the abundance of its products. There is also a very poetic popular legend which is worth mentioning.

A noble married couple from Saxony engaged to go on a pilgrimage to Rome if they could have had a child. Baby Aleramo was born during the pilgrimage in Santa Giustiniana Abbey in Sezzadio, in the nearby of Aqui Terme. The young parents left for Rome and committed the Lord and Lady of the castle to the care of their baby.

Unfortunately they died on their way to Rome and therefore Aleramo grew up among the people of the castle and became a brave knight of Emperor Otto I from Saxony. He fell in love with his daughter Alasia, but the Emperor did not consent their marriage and therefore they had to flee. But Aleramo was attracted by knightly ventures and came back to the imperial army to fight some rebellions which broke out in Northern Italy.

He distinguisehd himself by his qualities and when Emperor Otto got to know his behaviour he forgave the two lovers, conferred him the title of marquis and promised to give him as many territories as he could ride in three days.  

That territory was Monferrato: he had to prepare his horse for the ride and he did not find anything but a brick (in dialect “mun”) to shoe it (in dialect “frà”). He had found the name for the conquered land.