Cremolino was the main feud of the Monferrato branch of the Malaspina marquises, lords of the Lunigiana. The castle was built in the late 13th century, around a tower that dates from the year 1000, by Tommaso Malaspina, who inherited the estate from his mother Agnese, the last heir of the Aleramici Del Bosco marquises.
When the Malaspina line of Cremolino died out at the end of the 15th century, the castle was enfeoffed by the Marquis of Monferrato to the Sauli and Centurione families from Genoa, and from the mid-16th century to the Dorias. At the end of the 18th century it passed by marriage from them to the Serra marquises of Genoa.
Thanks partly to its triple band of walls, the castle was never conquered and as a result its medieval character, with the drawbridge, 14th-century tower and mighty 15th-century keep, has been preserved intact. The bastions of this medieval fortress look out over one of the most beautiful views of the Alto Monferrato and the Alps. The owners live permanently in the castle, which is surrounded by a 19th-century park of tall trees, boxwood topiary, roses, hydrangeas and fish ponds full of water-lilies.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.