The Avogadro

There are various theories about the origins of the Avogadro family. Some see them as relations of the Manfred dynasty, citing as founder Godemprando, son of the Count of Olreans and Duke of Italia Neustra, Manfred V. Others believe that their first ancestor was Aimone count of Vercelli, son of Manfred IX, who lived almost a century later. But it is Guala of Valdengo, descendant of Aimone who is almost certainly the true founder of the line.

How the Avogadro of Valdengo became the Avogadro of Collobiano and arrived at Montecavallo.

The title of Collobiano, belonging to the family descending from the famous Simone Avogadro di Collobiano, was added to the Avogadro of Valdengo in 1665. Simone had fought against the Ghibellines chasing them out of Vercelli in 1312 and he also played a decisive role in the expulsion of the heretics from Biella and its area delivering their leader Fra Dolcino to the stake at Novara in 1307.

It was his descendant Filiberto, able diplomat of the House of Savoy accredited to the Holy See, who in 1831 unfurled the standard of the Avogadro on the hill, when he bought 127 giornate of land adjacent to the Montecavallo Estate from the Ospedale degli Infermi of Biella for 92,000 lire; in fact that land had been ceded to the hospital in 1710. On the summit of the hill he began the construction of his castle. Filiberto died in 1868 and his descendants continued as lords of Montecavallo untill the death of Ferdinando Avogadro di Collobiano in 1967 when the castle was inherited by the present owners.