BOSSOLASCO

Standing on a high hill in the Alta Langa, at the foot of which flows the Belbo torrent, 25 kilometers south of Alba. "From that height the view extends over many low regions of Piedmont and extends to Monferrato, the Ligurian mountains and the Alps that crown the horizon" (Gustavo Straforello, Turin 1891 "La Patria - Geografia d'Italia - Prov. di Cuneo").

Bossolasco is a romantic holiday resort with very ancient origins. The first inhabitants of the Langhe were the Liguri Stazielli or Statielli, a tribe of Mediterranean (Celtic) origin that the Romans contemptuously called Capillati for the long beards and unkempt hair they wore.

In the 2nd century BC the entire area became a dominion of the Roman Empire and in 173 BC the Roman consul Marco Pompilio Lenate, in order to subject the rebellious Stazielli to Roman laws, organized a bloody punitive expedition against them. The retaliation was carried out with such ferocity that it was even censured by the Senate. The survivors took refuge along the Belbo torrent, giving rise to a small cluster of huts called “Buxale ad Belbum” or “place covered with boxwood forests near the Belbo”.

Over time, for defensive reasons, the Stazielli moved to the crest of the hill, giving rise to Buxlacum, maintaining the reference to the boxwood plants.

With the passing of the centuries, the toponym was transformed into Buzzolasco (from “Bozolus-Bozzurùn”, or hawthorn), from which the current name derives. The first document in which the name Bossolasco appears dates back to 1077: Imilla, sister of Adelaide of Susa and wife of Oddone of Savoy, mentions it together with other towns, requiring them to make a donation for the construction of the church of S. Pietro in Musinasco (town that gave rise to Villafranca Piemonte TO).
For almost five centuries the Stazielli were part of the Roman Empire, assimilating its civilization and living in peace. In the four centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, from the 5th to the 9th century AD, Piedmont, and therefore the Langhe, passed under the control of the Barbarians, the Goths, the Byzantines, the Lombards and then the Franks who, with Charlemagne, introduced the Marche, governed by the marquises.