Casotto Castle

Like other castles in Piedmont, Casotto's Castle was founded for non-military purposes.
At the beginning, it was a Chartusian monastery, one of the most ancient in Italy. It was founded in 11th century, perhaps by Saint Bruno, during his pilgrimage ftom the Great Chartreuse in Grenoble to Rome.
At the beginning, the monks lived in eight huts (in Italian "otto case" from which the name of the site "Case OTto" then "Casotto").
After Napoleone pillages, in the 19th century it was bought by Savoia family and trasformed into a hunting lodge, one of the preferred of Vittorio Emanuele II.
Recently, Turin University conducted an excavation campaign that has revealed the foundations of the original Carthusian monastery, and a 15 th century enlargement. When the castle was bought by Savoia, some important events took place in the building: here, in 1858, Princess Maria Clotilde accepted marry Gerolamo Bonaparte, Napoleon III's cousins, also called "Plon Plon", a marriage wanted by Cavour to obtain the alliance with France during the second war of indipendence.
Actually Piedmont Region, the owner of the building, is restructuring the castle.