What is Cella Monte known for?

Underground sandstone cells dug between 1830 and 1860 for storing wine; component of the UNESCO Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont. Local marine sandstone, 20-million-year-old, used as the construction stone for the entire village and its underground cellars. Ecomuseum of the pietra da cantoni inside Palazzo Volta, the village interpretive centre for stone, infernot and rural architecture.

When is the best time to visit Cella Monte?

Apr–Oct. April through June brings the Monferrato vineyards into leaf and the borgo's stone into its full yellow-grey colour. September and October are harvest, the months the infernot fill again, and the Ecomuseo runs its strongest programme. July and August get hot on the south-facing slopes; the infernot, dug straight into sandstone at constant temperature year-round, are the natural refuge between two and five in the afternoon. November through March is quiet. Many small cellars hold tastings by appointment only, but the Ecomuseo stays open weekends, and the empty courtyards in winter give the pietra da cantoni its sharpest line.

Where is Cella Monte?

Cella Monte is a comune in the province of Alessandria, Piedmont region of Italy, about 58 kilometers from Novara.

How do I get to Cella Monte?

From Novara, Cella Monte is roughly 58 km by road.

Piedmont · Alessandria

Cella Monte

A 465-person Monferrato Casalese borgo, built entirely from a sandstone found only here, riddled underneath with cellars carved into the same stone.

Known for

INFERNOT
Underground sandstone cells dug between 1830 and 1860 for storing wine; component of the UNESCO Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont.
PIETRA DA CANTONI
Local marine sandstone, 20-million-year-old, used as the construction stone for the entire village and its underground cellars.
ECOMUSEO
Ecomuseum of the pietra da cantoni inside Palazzo Volta, the village interpretive centre for stone, infernot and rural architecture.
DOCG ZONES
The commune lies inside the Barbera d'Asti and Barbera del Monferrato Superiore DOCG production zones.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: Quirico e Giulitta, 16 June

Why come

Cella Monte sits in the Monferrato Casalese hills, ten kilometers south-west of Casale Monferrato. The commune holds 465 people. The defining material is pietra da cantoni, a soft sandstone formed when the Padana sea retreated more than 20 million years ago, found only in this stretch of hill country.

The village is built out of nothing else: walls, arches, courtyards and retaining structures all in the same yellow-grey block, so that the church, the palazzo and the ordinary houses of the centro storico read as one continuous fabric rather than separate buildings in a shared style. Underneath that surface the same stone was hollowed out again. Each infernot sits off a family wine cellar, cut into the sandstone itself, and the cold, dark, still air below ground did what the rooms above could not: keep the best bottles at constant temperature, undisturbed by light, draught or noise.

The village above is stone assembled; the village below is stone removed. Cella Monte is best understood as that pairing, a single sandstone worked in two opposite directions, one raising the borgo and the other hollowing out beneath it.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Cella Monte’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

What to see

Infernot di Cella Monte
Small cells reached from the family wine cellar, dark, windless and at constant temperature, built to hold the household's best bottles rather than the everyday stock.
Ecomuseo della Pietra da Cantoni
Museum of stone and infernot construction, laid out across rooms whose restoration exposed the palazzo's older fabric beneath later plaster and masonry.
Palazzo Volta
Restored noble palazzo in the centro storico, home of the Ecomuseo, with a fifteenth-century loggia recovered under later masonry.
Chiesa di San Quirico
Parish church of the village, standing among the same yellow-grey blocks that make up the borgo's houses and courtyards.
Centro storico
A compact hill settlement where street, wall and courtyard read as a single material, and where the underground cellars sit beneath the surface streets.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Cella Monte fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

Living here

Population 465
Commuter belti
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Nearest airport Turin, 1 h 27 min drive
Regional capital Torino, 1 h 27 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

Borghi più belli d'Italia

The numbers

Elevation: 268 m
Population: 465
Surface area: 5.55 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Novara

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

Close by