The Medieval Tower with Entranceway Arch to the Historic City Center

The tower is the best-preserved monument of the Middle Ages.
Originally the tower stood isolated, high on the defense ramparts on the eastern hillside, which marked the town’s former historic center. Later, it was joined with the Marquis of Carretto’s manor built by the nineteenth-century architect Schellino of Dogliani, on the rock where the castle now stands.
A stretch of the ramparts still existed in 1843.
In 1937 construction began on the road that runs through the village; previously, the tower stood on the ramparts and the ogival arch was the sole passage between the old center of Novello (that corresponded to the current Umberto I Street, Piazza Guglielmo Marconi and the area of the castle) and Borgo S. Michele (corresponding to the current via Jordan).
Inside the arch fornix, one can still see the groove in which the door was inserted permitted access to the town interior. In fact, the stones are still blackened by the smoke from the lit torches.
The tower was painted with the double eagle yoked to a chariot, a symbol of the family of Carretto. It was however eliminated in 1848 during the Age of the Risorgimento, as it was interpreted as the Crest of the Austrian Empire.
The parish church was joined to the tower in the 1700s.