Hot air balloons to celebrate the new season of visits to the castle of Manta dei Fai. On Saturday 26 February, at 3 pm, three balloons, lying next to the playground in the center of Manta, in via Valerano in front of the elementary schools, will announce that the noble residence is reopening its ancient rooms.
“For the first time in two years, we open the season in the last weekend of February, instead of March: a good omen for the resumption of all projects that enhance our heritage – underlines Silvia Cavallero, property manager of the Castle for the You do -. Since last year the link between the residence witnessing the great past of the Marquisate of Saluzzo and its territory has become stronger, through initiatives, including the cycle of events “Vie di Natura e Cultura” which invites you to discover the landscape and the environment in which the castle is immersed ».
A landscape to discover, starting from the village which since the Middle Ages has woven a continuous dialogue with the manor. From those houses came the servants, the servants, and also the lover of the Marquis Tommaso III who gave him his illegitimate son Valerano, to whom we owe the Baronial Hall with the cycle of Heroes and Heroines and the Fountain of Youth, a splendid example of international gothic.
The seventeenth-century gallery that joins the Salone delle Grottesche to Michele Antonio’s private apartments is part of the visit itinerary with the Sala degli Alberi and the former 15th-century libraries. The latest works supported by the Crt Foundation have restored brilliance to the inlays of the floor of the hall decorated in a mannerist style. On the second floor the nineteenth-century red rooms have been opened with the library, the room with bandera embroidery and now also the small bathroom.
“We have also restored the environment of the dumbwaiter that carried the dishes from the kitchen to the room where the banquets were set up”, adds Silvia Cavallero who on Saturday will receive the guests of the Mondovì aeroclub, with the mayor of Manta, Paolo Vulcano. Three pilots will inflate the balloons in front of the public and then deepen the theme of climate change. Balloons rely on currents and are sensitive to any changes: pilots study the climate to optimize flights.
Paolo Bonanno is expected at the Mantese appointment, who has joined the international elite of aerostatics, after Umberto Nobile and Vincenzo Lunardi. Today he is on the board of the Mondovì Mongolfiere aeroclub, led by Giorgio Bogliaccino. “With hot-air balloons, symbols of freedom, we are starting a collaboration that will lead to new initiatives”, concludes Silvia Cavallero. The visits to the castle are held from Wednesday to Sunday from 10 to 18. Admission 10 euros, 4 children reduced, with the obligation of a reinforced green pass and mask. Reservations on the Castle website.