One can best reach the hamlet from the Via Maestra (Main road) in late afternoon to avoid the crowd of evening strollers brushing against the succession of shops from Piazza Savona to Casa Fontana on the Luserna stone paving. Or get there from the ancient Via San Francesco, now Via Cavour or Contea éd Tane (Tanaro county), flanking medieval houses with overhanging towers, trying to imagine a view of the Cathedral in the background of the empty spaces between the arcades. One can also reach it furtively from the deserted, lesser known lanes when grazing blades of light enhance the decadent friezes and stuccoes. No matter the route, when the piazza comes into view, the bulk of the Duomo seems to fall upon you enrapturing the eye with its simple architecture, the colour of the bricks, which light and shade create and refract into either soft or violent reds, like in a polyhedron, according to the time of the day.

You have now reached the ancient Piazza del Duomo, the Hamlet of San Lorenzo, a hamlet of roman traditions, of piety, of nobility, of justice, of conflicts, of historical feasts, of memories. Over the centuries all of the inhabitants of the Alba region have trodden the age-old paving at least once, casting an eye over the severe structures of the ancient towers where, protected by strict laws, storks used to nest.

Who knows how and when the ancient town planners had chosen this place as the area on which to build the Forum. And who knows in which way the roman augur took the omens into consideration before he traced the final urban structure of the city with the lituo, cardo and decumanus maximus.

Thus, from time immemorial the Piazza del Duomo, the Municipal Palace and the Cathedral are considered to be the heart of the city and of the Albese people; it was therefore quite natural that the aristocratic families should decide to settle in the San Lorenzo district. And for the hamlet to witness time and again the lives and conflicts of many of the powerful Guelph or Ghibelline families : the Corradengo, the Morozzo, the De Braida.

Even the coat of arms chosen by the population to revive the hamlet in 1967 is a refashioning of the seal of this powerful Albese family that headed the city’s Guelph faction for many years and who, in 1259 had as many as five of its members on the Council that delegated Corrado Corradengo and Ottone De Braida to negotiate the commitment of the Municipality to Charles of Anjou.

Thus, the coat of arms now accepted by the hamlet consists of a shield on sky blue crossed in white at the centre (white has been chosen to contrast with silver). Atop sits the seal with the coat of arms of the De Braida family, refashioned from the original silver to three roebucks on sky blue. In a truly aristocratic sense white and intense sky blue cannot be considered as tinctures, but today the hamlet is employing these colours with great dignity.

The activities carried out in the hamlet at present still reflect the styles of the past. The organisers, who have grown up in this environment have not betrayed their origins and have held fast to the traditions of their elders; the concept of nobility and austerity of the pageant, a sometimes violent taste for pranks, the power of vendetta and … a craving for a Palio never won, are all part of the personality of the inhabitants.

Victories: 1990

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