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.

In addition to the village of Gabiano itself, and to Varengo, which was a commune in its own right until 1928, the 2001 census listed Cantavenna, Piagera and Sessana as the municipality’s primary centres of population.

[3][4][5] 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.

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.