Piemonte · Cuneo
Villar San Costanzo
A Val Maira village at 605 meters, with a reserve of 479 mushroom-shaped erosion columns.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Villar San Costanzo is on our list
It holds Borgo dei Borghi.
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Visiting
- Best time
- May–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 31 min from Turin
- Population
- 1,542
- J7°
- F10°
- M12°
- A16°
- M19°
- J24°
- J27°
- A27°
- S22°
- O17°
- N11°
- D7°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Villar San Costanzo sits at the mouth of the Val Maira, fifteen kilometers northwest of Cuneo. The village and its religious complex sit apart from the reserve on the higher ground above: an abbey anchors the settlement itself, founded in the early eighth century as the commune's historic religious center, while a church and the erosion columns both belong to the slope of the massif that rises over the village.
The name Ciciu is Piedmontese for puppet, given to the columns for their shape: a shaft of earth and stone topped by a glacial erratic boulder, the cap shielding the softer material beneath from rain while the surrounding ground wears away around it. Local legend ties the columns to the same ground as the chapel above them, reading the shapes as the petrified soldiers of Diocletian, cursed by a martyr who gave the village its name, a Roman legionary of the Theban Legion killed nearby around 303. Village below, abbey at its center, and slope above carrying both the sanctuary built on the martyrdom site and the columns the legend attaches to it: the settlement's religious history and its natural landmark trace back to the same rise of ground and the same story.
How to get there
From Turin (TRN), about 1 h 50 min by car.
Genoa (GOA) is about 2 h 17 min away.
By car from the center of Milan 2 h 54 min.
Coming by train into Torino Porta Susa? Villar San Costanzo is about 1 h 30 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Turin airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Riserva Naturale dei Ciciu del Villar
The columns stand on the slope between 670 and 1,350 meters, earth and stone shafts each shielded by its boulder cap while the ground around them erodes away.
Chiesa di San Costanzo al Monte
The church carries frescoes from the eleventh century and stands on the site of the martyrdom, on the slope of Monte San Bernardo above the village.
Abbazia di San Costanzo
Benedictine abbey at the heart of the village, founded in the early eighth century and the historic religious anchor of the commune.
Sentiero dei Ciciu
Marked trail through the reserve, climbing from 670 to 1,350 meters along the Costa Pragamonti among the columns and the larch forest.
Monte San Bernardo
Massif above the village whose erratic deposits feed the Ciciu reserve, with marked routes to the saint's hilltop chapel.
Living here
Could you live here?
Villar San Costanzo is a village with a town close by.
- A village of 1,542, with Busca (10,175 people) 13 min away for the shopping and a meal out. Our rule is a town within 15 minutes.
- Cuneo, a city of 55,751, is 32 min by car. Inside our 30 to 60 minutes: close for the services, far enough to keep its own life.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
We measured every town in the region on these rules, by its drive to Turin, the city we moved to: Moving to Turin and Piedmont.
- Population 1,542, down 1.2% since 2015
- Nearest city Cuneo, 32 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Cuneo, 15 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €870 to €1,300 per m² to buy, €3.10 to €4.10 per m² a month to rent
Weighing a move here? See the moving year.
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 67% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Cuneo airport (CUF), 32 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Turin, 1 h 31 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
8% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Morocco and Bangladesh, against 9% across Italy. 16 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly France. There are 174 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 39% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Cuneo province ranks 27th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Cuneo, 15 km as the crow flies, and it is a major one. It has a children's emergency room too. The nearest IB school is International School of Turin, 67 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.91% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.5% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Piemonte spends about €2,240 a month, €580 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €467 a year for water, on the Piemonte average. In Cuneo, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.34 and a meal in a pizzeria €12.38.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone F, the coldest of Italy's six, with no national limit on when the heating runs. 3% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 4% in a high or medium one. 2% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
I CICIU
Four hundred and seventy-nine mushroom-shaped erosion columns across 64 hectares, capped by erratic boulders and protected since 1989.
SAN COSTANZO AL MONTE
Twelfth-century Romanesque-Gothic church on the slope of the martyrdom, over an earlier eighth-century foundation.
THE LEGEND
Local tradition reads the Ciciu as petrified soldiers of Diocletian, cursed by the martyr Costanzo around 303 AD.
MELA ROSSA CUNEO
The commune lies inside the Mela Rossa Cuneo IGP production zone.
Common questions
- What is Villar San Costanzo known for?
- Villar San Costanzo is a Val Maira village at 605 meters, with a reserve of 479 mushroom-shaped erosion columns.
- Where is Villar San Costanzo?
- Villar San Costanzo is a comune in the province of Cuneo, in Piemonte.
- What is the nearest airport to Villar San Costanzo?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Cuneo (CUF), about 32 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Milan to Villar San Costanzo?
- About 2 h 54 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Villar San Costanzo?
- Best in May–Oct. August is the warmest month, averaging 27 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 17 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Villar San Costanzo?
- Aymavilles, Greccio and Summonte.
- How many people live in Villar San Costanzo?
- 1,542 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Villar San Costanzo a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Villar San Costanzo is a village with a town of 5,000 people within 15 minutes (Busca, 13 min). The nearest city, Cuneo, is 32 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Cuneo, 15 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 67% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 605 m
- Population: 1,542
- Surface area: 19.5 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Villar San Costanzo appears in
Similar
Towns like Villar San Costanzo
What all six share with Villar San Costanzo: mountain-valley towns · under 3,000 people · high up, between 600 and 1,000 metres
The letter
Villar San Costanzo is on our list. Its letter is still to come.
We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter: the photo, what is worth eating, and when to turn up. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Villar San Costanzo comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Camogli, 140 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.