Carema

Carema is a village of 750 people (2021) in the Piedmont region of Italy. The village of Carema lies in a beautiful sunny valley north west of Piedmont and marks the divide between Piedmont and the Aosta Valley. The backdrop to the village is a spectacular expanse of vineyards clinging onto rocky slopes up to an altitude of 600 masl.

Understand
Carema's vineyard terraces are supported by dry stone walls and are filled with fertile morainal soil brought up from the bottom of the valley. The terraces are lined with pillars in the shape of a truncated cone made of stone and lime. Vine trellises rest on the flat stone “caps” placed on top of the pillars. In the local dialect the name for the vine pergola is “topia” or “tupiun”, while “pilun” is the name for the white pillars supporting it and which inspired the unusual definition of “Bacchus’s Temples”. During the day these masses of rock store the heat of the sun and then release it in the night, thus attenuating the difference in temperature range between day and night.

See
Along the narrow streets and on the tiny squares there are several stone fountains. The one on via Basilia, built by the Challant-Madruzzo, was built as a tribute to the Dukes of Savoy in 1571. Tthe granite stele placed at the tip of the basin is adorned with the heraldic coats of arms of the Savoy and the Kings of France.

The Grand Maison, or Gran Masun, at the corner with via Bottero, is a " stronghold " which must have had defensive functions. On its robust stone walls there are small windows with grilles, framed by rustic architraves and piers; the remains of heraldic coats of arms can be seen on the facade. The Torre degli Ugoni also has a defensive function.

The village's bell tower, 60 metres high, was built between 1760 and 1769.

At the ends of the basin which forms the background of the town, there are two votive buildings dear to popular devotion, almost acting as sentinels: on the left, the small chapel of Siei, and on the right, above a rocky outcrop, the 17th-century chapel of San Rocco.