File:Castle di Gabiano cellar (27777387087).jpg

Gabiano (Gabian in Piedmontese) is a rural comune in the northwest of the province of Alessandria, some 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Casale Monferrato. This area straddles the lowland immediately south of the Po and the furthest extension of the Monferrato hills. Its current population of some 1,250 has halved since mid-1930s.

The village of Gabiano lies on the southern slopes of a hill dominated by a castle of ancient origins, which was reconstructed in the early twentieth century in the Neo-Gothic style. At the foot of the hill—the original site of the village—is a parish church dedicated to Saint Peter. Although rebuilt in 1690, it retains the twin bell towers from the original medieval building.

Cantavenna, largely rebuilt after the Second World War, has two works of interest by the sculptor Giannino Castiglioni: a bas relief celebrating the “Peasant Defender of Liberty” and the “Fountain of the Emigrants”, which was commissioned by the Italians of Chicago. In the nineteenth century the parish church of San Carpoforo was erected here on the spot where the Jacobins had planted their tree of liberty.