Hi all!
Today we’ll walk up to Prarostino, near to Borgata Colombini, in a place called Castel del Loup, literally Wolf’s Castle.
As you can imagine, formerly in this place there was a castle, which in its 500 years of history has been a battle scene for many times.
The fortification, indeed, was assaulted two times by the Dukes of Savoy, but the funny thing is that the two events took place exactly at 100 years of distance one from the other, the 15th of July in 1593 and in the same day in 1693.
Today, unfortunately, the fortification doesn’t exist anymore, but I want to tell you the legend which originated its name. Long long time ago, when the castle still existed but was abandoned from years, a young stranger occupied it. The guy wasn’t alone, because with him there were many many cats: red and white, tabby and black, fat and slim, lazy and smart. In a small house, right next to the castle walls, there lived a peasant, desperate because some mice used to eat everything in every room of his house. The situation was so hard that in his loom the vegetables were eaten and ruined before he could even pick them!
Because he knew that the young man who lived in the castle had many cats, the peasant asked him to lend him some of them, to try to relieve him from the mice. Oh, you should have seen the job made by that cats! In a twinkling, all the rats disappeared… and the cats got fatter and fatter! Very grateful, the peasant decided to donate to the stranger his best lamb.
The following night, however, the hamlet was unsettled by a terrible howl! It was the wolf, who smelling the lamb decided to eat him in one bite. For this reason, he began to roam on the high walls of the fortification, following that delicious scent with his outstanding olfaction. But after a few steps, he noticed to be not alone: all the cats of the castle were watching him in the dark with their glaring eyes. For sure, they wouldn’t have permitted him to invade their territory!
In the fairytales, the castles are always guarded by flaming dragons, but these cats should have been really frightful, all together, hissing and growling hell for leather!
Indeed, the wolf, terror–stricken by this situation, ran away so rushing that during his escape fell in a cliff near the castle, which since that episode is called Castel del Loup.
How to get here:
from San Secondo di Pinerolo go straight on the Provincial Road 165 to Prarostino and go on for 1.5 km.
Turn right in Via Gay and go straight to a fork. At the fork keep the straight way and reach the Colombini hamlet, which is about 100 metres far.
Do you want to read the tale in Italian ?