Discover Tonco

Tonco offers several specific points of interest to help you plan your trip: late Baroque religious architecture, remains of the former castle and two stages of the Cammini delle alte colline ombrose e delle colline chiare. If you are looking for a hotel in Tonco, the different themes can help you choose the destination: are you mainly interested in historic buildings, the landscape along a route, or both? The sights and routes offer different answers to that question.

Churches and historical traces

The Chiesa dei Santi Maria Assunta e San Giuseppe is an 18th-century parish church. It was built in the late Baroque style to a design by Filippo Castelli. The main altar is another striking feature of the building: it is made of fine marble. Its construction date, architectural style and altar offer several ways to explore Tonco’s religious architecture.

Some sections of the perimeter walls of Tonco’s former castle have survived. They are located in the oldest part of the settlement, where the buildings were constructed within the Ricetto. Two aspects of the historic settlement structure therefore meet here: the surviving castle walls and the buildings in the oldest part of town. To understand the site, it is worth considering both together rather than viewing the sections of wall apart from their surroundings.

Other churches, each with their own distinct associations, add to this picture. The Chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista stands on the square of the same name, at the end of Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. Today, only the bell tower of the demolished Chiesa di Santa Maria remains. The Chiesa dell'Annunziata is known in the Piedmontese dialect as “la Nunsià”; the Santuario di Maria Ausiliatrice was built in 1922. Their locations, traditional name, surviving structure and construction date each bring a different aspect of the local religious buildings into focus.

Stages and landscape

Stage 4 of the Cammini delle alte colline ombrose e delle colline chiare runs from Corsione to Tonco. It is 11.5 kilometres long, with a stated duration of 2 hours and 45 minutes. Stage 5 starts in Tonco and covers 10.5 kilometres to the hamlet of Sanico; its stated duration is 2 hours and 35 minutes. By comparison, Stage 4 is one kilometre longer and, according to the stated times, takes ten minutes longer. The different starting and ending points also help distinguish the two stages.

For the first section of Stage 5, the route follows the road from Tonco into the Valle del Rio di Tonco. It passes through extensive cultivated areas with gentle changes in elevation. From there, views stretch across ridge roads lined with historic farmhouses and small linear settlements. These landscape features give the stage a different focus from the figures for distance and duration alone: they describe what characterises the first section’s scenery.

Tonco’s streets also have a distinctive architectural feature: many old gates conceal the courtyards of the town’s oldest farmhouses. Whether exploring the stage or the town through its architecture, you can look beyond the churches and sections of castle wall to these gates and the courtyards behind them. These features belong to different parts of the townscape, so they can each be considered as a separate point of interest.

Special places and local culture

Tonco’s Bialbero is located in Località Cascina Piane. It is a plant with another tree growing at its top. Another local point of interest is the Sferisterio Cavalier Beretta: the playing field is used for Tambass, also known as Tamburello a muro, a sport typical of the Astesano Monferrato. The two places appeal to quite different interests: the Bialbero’s unusual growth form on the one hand, and a regional sport on the other.

The Giostra del Pitu includes an equestrian competition with participating town districts. Seven districts are listed for the 2026 edition; the number can vary from one edition to another. The Brando dance begins after the Giostra del Pitu. The Brando is a folk dance typical of the Monferrato, documented since the first half of the 17th century. These details illustrate two different time frames: the number of participating districts can change with each edition, while the Brando is documented as a historic dance form dating back to the 17th century.

Discover more destinations: Montemagno, Boglietto, Refrancore, Soglio, Pasquana, Cantarana, Loazzolo, Villanova d'Asti.

For the broader travel overview: Asti.