Pralormo has approximately 1,900 inhabitants and is located 40 km from Turin. It sits on a hill between the foothills of the Pianalto and the beginning of the Roero region. The name “Pralormo” is a combination of “pratum” and “ulmum”, derived from the Lombard tradition of planting trees (such as elms and oaks) in symbolic locations within the settlement. The earliest documented records date back to 1065 when the locality, known as Predarolo, was given by Adelaide of Susa to the Bishop of Asti. In the centuries that followed, the fief was repeatedly divided, and various lords, feudal lords, and families (Anterisio, Desaya, Gorzano, Pelletta, Roero, and later the Costa della Trinità and Polonghera, Petrina, Dal Pozzo di Voghera, Ferrero della Marmora, and Beraudo) took turns in ruling Pralormo. Two notable figures in Pralormo’s history are Cardinal Giovanni Battista Roero and Count Carlo Beraudo of Pralormo. The former served as the Bishop of Acqui from 1727 until 1744, when he was appointed Archbishop of Turin and later became a cardinal in 1756.
Count Carlo Beraudo of Pralormo, responsible for consolidating the fiefdom around 1830 by acquiring properties from the Roero and La Marmora families, played an important role in the first half of the 19th century. He began his career in the Sardinian legation in Berlin and Paris, eventually becoming a plenipotentiary minister in both cities. He also served as Minister of Finance and later as Minister of the Interior under King Charles Albert of Sardinia. In 1848, he was appointed senator and negotiated the peace of Milan with Austria in 1849.
Places of Interest
The Parish Church of San Donato (1931) with a valuable triptych by Jacopino Longo (1546), which was recently stolen. The medieval Castle Beraudo of Pralormo, dating back to the 13th century, along with the farmhouse, the splendid English garden designed in the 19th century by Xavier Kurten, the court architect known for his work on the most important gardens of the House of Savoy, the orangery, and the glass and iron greenhouse. Since 2000, the park hosts the Messer Tulipano event in April, featuring over 100,000 flowers, including tulips and daffodils, which welcome spring each year.
The Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Thorn (1756), located near the Lake of the Thorn, an irrigation reservoir built starting from 1827 that reaches dimensions of approximately 1 km in length and 200 m in width at its widest point.
The reservoir, which still dams the small valley of the Torto River, was constructed at the behest of Count Carlo Beraudo of Pralormo and Marquis Carlo Emanuele Ferrero Della Marmora to collect rainwater for irrigation.