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Its history
The Cornarea hill has been known as such since the year 1000. In 1908, Eugenio Grillone, a lawyer and illustrious personality from Canale and mayor there for many years at the beginning of the past century, completely restructured the already existing farmhouse on the summit of the hill into a turreted Villa, in Piedmontese Liberty style.
The project was personally designed by the lawyer, who was inspired by a model he had seen at an international exhibition in Turin in 1908, as can be read in the book about the history of Canale,“Idilli Canalesi”, from Mario C. Giordano (ed.1945), where an entire chapter is dedicated to Villa Cornarea.
The location was also carefully chosen by the lawyer: although Villa Cornarea is very close to the centre of Canale it is at the same time isolated at the top of a hill. In fact, the Villa is an oasis of peace, tranquillity and silence from where you can admire, undisturbed, the beauty of the surrounding landscape and nature. Villa Cornarea is a place that fortifies the spirit and the body, as the lawyer himself wished to emphasize by having the motto “in quiete salus”, carved on the stone on the Villa’s door.
In the 60’s, Villa Cornarea became property of the De Orsola family, coffee industrialists from Turin, at that time more important than Lavazza. The Villa was used as a summer residence and reception hall (Villa Cornarea also hosted the ambassador of Brazil). A swimming pool, with a characteristic elongated triangular shape traversed by a small bridge, was built in the middle of the park and is still present today; a regulation diving board was even installed in order to allow their friend, a diving champion, to practise.
Finally in 1974, the villa along with the entire hill, approximately 15 hectares in all, was purchased by the Bovone family. In fact, Gian Piero Bovone, a wine specialist, was in search of a cru (a hill with optimum exposure to the sun) to replant a native white wine vine species of very antique origin, which in those years had almost disappeared: the Arneis. That is the reason why 15 hectares of vineyards came to be planted around Villa Cornarea: 12 of Arneis and three of Nebbiolo.
Those 12 hectares were the first Arneis vineyards which, at the time, could otherwise only be found cultivated in few rows among the red grapes.
Nowadays, the Roero Arneis is the only famous white wine in a land of great reds, like the Barolo, and the “Azienda Agricola Cornarea” continues to cultivate the Arneis vineyards and to make this delicious nectar. The whole family works in the company: Gian Piero Bovone together with his wife Francesca and their son Gian Nicola, who is also a wine specialist, follow the wine making process, whilst their other son, Pier, looks after the commercial aspects.
In 2001, Ilaria and Pier Bovone decided to restructure Villa Cornarea, in order to destine its use to hospitality. In October 2004, after 3 years of reconstruction, Villa Cornarea began its new hosting activities, almost at the same time as the birth of Bianca Maria, Ilaria and Pier’s firstborn child. |
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