The town is situated on the left bank of the Bormida di Spigno, on a plain ringed by hills that climb up toward the Appennines in the direction of Monferrato. The Parco dell’Adelasia is located in its territory. An important Roman station on the Via Julia Augusta from Vado to Tortona, it was invaded by the Longobards and sacked numerous times by the Saracens. In the twelfth century it came under the rule of the marchesi Del Carretto, who originated here, but in 1339 the fief went to the Scarampi of Asti and was later conquered by the house of Savoy. Bonaparte defeated the Austrians at Montenotte in 1796. Laid out on a rectangular plan, the town still has traces of its fourteenth-century walls with a tower and the Porta Soprana, a gate with a pointed arch. The ruins of the former Del Carretto castle date from the same century. The parish church of San Lorenzo, overlooked by a tall campanile, was built in 1630-40. The industrial center of Cairo Montenotte has three principal sectors of production: coke (700,000 metric tons a years), photographic materials (Ferrania) and carbon-based chemical compounds. Prized boletus mushrooms and black truffles are gathered in the hilly areas.