Lomellina, the Little Loire

On Sunday 27 September 2026, the Ecomuseo del Paesaggio Lomellino is organising a new day dedicated to “Lomellina, the little Loire”, the project that promotes the rich heritage of castles, abbeys and churches in this corner of the Province of Pavia, often compared – for its high concentration of historic strongholds – to the famous Loire Valley in France. The event has been designed to be flexible: visitors can join the morning visit, the afternoon one, or both, stopping in between for lunch with the Lomellina-style menu offered for the occasion.

The day takes in two of the most representative towns of castle-studded Lomellina, Sartirana Lomellina and Frascarolo, linked by a common thread: medieval strongholds built to defend the borders of the Duchy of Milan, later transformed over the centuries into elegant residences and now open to the public thanks to the work of the Ecomuseo del Paesaggio Lomellino, a public-private organisation based in Ferrera Erbognone that welcomes around four thousand visitors a year to discover the twenty-six castles of the area.

Programme of the day

11:00 – Sartirana Lomellina

The meeting point is the Castle of Sartirana, at Piazza Ludovico da Breme 4, for a guided tour of the largest castle in Lomellina. Built at the end of the 14th century on the orders of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and strengthened in the following century by the Sforza family, the castle was later turned by the Gattinara family into an elegant residence, taking on the quadrangular layout with moat and four corner towers that it still preserves today, including its distinctive cylindrical tower. Passed to the Duke of Aosta in 1934, it now houses the Centro Studi e Documentazione della Lomellina and the Fondazione Sartirana Arte, together with its museum collections.

12:30 – Lunch break (optional)

For those who wish to continue the day in Lomellina between one visit and the other, a Lomellina-style set menu is available at a cost of €25.00 per person.

15:30 – Frascarolo

In the afternoon, the guided tour moves to Frascarolo, at the Museo del Contadino, set up in the old farm courtyard of the Castello Grande, whose first traces date back to the 14th century. The present building, renovated in the 19th century with elegant loggias and trompe-l'oeil painted windows, now houses the museum dedicated to Lomellina's rural civilisation, arranged in the sections “The Home”, “The Crafts” and “The Land”: around 800 objects, including farm carts, tools and machinery for working the fields, telling the story of rural life in this rice-growing area from the 19th century to the 1960s.

Costs and information

Participation with a guided tour costs €12.00 per person for adults and €5.00 for children aged 10 to 16; admission is free for children up to 9 years old.

For information and bookings, please contact the Ecomuseo del Paesaggio Lomellino at 328.7816360.