Pollenzo, the ancient Roman city of Pollentia founded at the end of the 2nd century BC, is today a small hamlet in the Municipality of Bra, overlooking the river Tanaro. In 402 AD, the place was the scene of the homonymous battle, in which the Visigoths led by Alaric were defeated by the Roman general Stilicho. Later, in medieval times, the village became a county seat and a prestigious feudal residence. The Church of San Vittone with its neo-gothic forms was built in the 1940s, like the Castello di Pollenzo, a Royal Residence.
A curiosity: during the works for the laying of some pipes in the square in front of the building some technicians found ancient tombs, including that of a woman of high rank who died in the second quarter of the fifth century. It was known that in ancient times the square was used as a cemetery, but what astonished the scholars was the state of preservation of the body of the lady, buried with several personal items, including gold earrings, datable and usable to determine her ethnicity, presumably Germanic.
The same excavations also brought to light the walls of an ancient Roman amphitheatre.
