Moretta Hamlet established itself independently only in the 17th century, while it really only acquired individual connotation after the Napoleonic period, or better, at the very beginning of the 1900’s when works started on the Shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary and destined to hold a votive pillar erected by Giovanni Antonio Marengo alongside his farm in 1685. The votive pillar was dedicated "to the Holy Virgin who dispensed miraculous gifts in the Hamlet of Moretta " (G. Vico, La Piazza del Duomo of Alba) and in 1909 was moved to the new Parish church. Thus the reason for the place-name "Moretta".

In recent years, massive urban migration has overwhelmed the urban fabric of the area. A virgin territory that, not having been part of a regular town-planning scheme has acquired its own identity on becoming an hamlet. By nature its inhabitants have unwittingly assimilated tastes and traditions typical of an environment which, though forming part of the city is in opposition to it, and is perceived as an ancient centre with its baggage of age-old traditions.

The hamlet, situated outside the historical "walls", and in the case of Moretta outside the Gate of San Martino, beyond the Hamlet of Santa Barbara on the road to the sea, has always followed a particular style of life in part similar to that of the adjacent Hamlet of Smoke which is subjected to the same conditions of a satellite territory.

In fact, both live between the city and the countryside, in neutral areas where a typically urban mentality clashes with rustic traditions; a place where it easier to close ranks in a protest, but more difficult to speak up to obtain what would be obvious for the historical centre but considered superfluous for a suburb. This explains the reasons behind the resourcefulness of a hamlet, behind the wish to prove what it is capable of doing and organising, behind its ability of uniting to gain more strength and enthusiasm.

The coat of arms of the hamlet is a cracked shield topped by a helmet surmounted by a coronet. The tinctures and metals chosen are green and gold, already known in the hamlet in the early 1900’s as the symbols of the Oenological School.

With some variations, apart from the tinctures, the coat of arms chosen is similar to that which adorned the insignia of the Busca family in the 18thCentury, when this noble family owned most of the territory comprised in the Camparia of Monfrario (District of Monfrario). While it adopted the symbols of this family, the hamlet has attributed a different meaning to them so as to underscore in a precise manner the distinctive features of its dwellers. The helmet and the wild animal symbolise a fighting nature and invulnerability during the Palio; in particular: ferocious like a wild animal, invulnerable as an armour, watchful as a hawk.

Victories: 1985, 1996, 1998, 2001.

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