Everything about Casale Monferrato totally explained
Casale Monferrato is a town in the
Piedmont region of north-west
Italy, part of the
province of Alessandria. It is situated about 60 km east of
Turin on the right bank of the
Po, where the river runs at the foot of the
Monferrato hills. Beyond the river lies the vast plain of the Po valley.
History
The origins of the town are fairly obscure. It is known that the
Gaulish settlement of Vardacate (from
var = ‘water’;
ate = ‘populated place’) existed on the Po in this area, and that it became a Roman
municipium. By the beginning of the eighth century there was a small town under
Lombard rule, probably called Sedula or Sedulia. It was here (according to late and unreliable accounts) that one
Saint Evasius, along with 146 followers, was decapitated on the orders of the
Arian Duke Attabulo.
Liutprand, King of the Lombards is said to have supported the construction of a church in honour of Evasius. Certainly the martyr’s cult flourished and by 988 the town had become known as
Casale di Sant’Evasio.
At the time of
Charlemagne, the town came under the temporal and religious power of the bishops of
Vercelli, from which it was freed by
Frederick Barbarossa,
Holy Roman Emperor and
King of Italy. It was sacked by the anti-imperial troops of
Vercelli,
Alessandria and
Milan in 1215, but rebuilt and fortified in 1220. It fell under the power of the
Marquess of Montferrat in 1292, and later became the capital of the marquessate.
In
1536 it passed to the
Gonzagas of
Mantua, who fortified it strongly. Thereafter it was of considerable importance as a fortress: it successfully resisted the
Austrians in
1849, and was strengthened in 1852.
Towards the end of the
nineteenth century it became known as "Cement Capital" (
capitale del cemento), thanks to the quantity of
Portland cement in the hills nearby, and in the
twentieth century it acquired
printing press and
refrigerator industries.
The historic centre
Piazza Mazzini and its environs
The historic centre of the town is itself centred on Piazza Mazzini, the site of the Roman
forum. Named for
Giuseppe Mazzini, a key republican figure of the
Risorgimento, it's dominated by an 1843
equestrian statue by
Abbondio Sangiorgio of
Carlo Alberto, King of
Piedmont-Sardinia, dressed in
Roman costume, specifically as a senator, with his knees uncovered. The statue was commissioned by the municipal authorities as a mark of gratitude to the king for having selected Casale as the seat of Piedmont’s second
Court of Appeal—a restoration, in some sense, of the old senate of Monferrato—and to celebrate the construction of Casale’s first permanent bridge across the Po. Locally the square is invariably called Piazza Cavallo:
cavallo being the Italian word for ‘horse’.
The duomo
A little to the east of the square is the fine
Lombard Romanesque cathedral of
Sant'Evasio, originally founded in 742, rebuilt in the early
twelfth century and consecrated in 1106 or 1107; it underwent restoration in 1706 and again in the
19th century. It contains some good pictures, and the relics of Saint Evasius, but is probably most notable for its remarkable
narthex.
San Domenico
In 1471, after
Guglielmo VIII Paleologo had chosen Casale as the permanent location of the Monferrato court, construction began of the church of San Domenico, to the north of Piazza Mazzini. Work on the building ceased for some time, as a result of political instability; in the early sixteenth century a fine, if slightly incongruous,
Renaissance portal was imposed on the late
Gothic façade.
Via Lanza
Via Lanza, which runs northwards from the north-west corner of Piazza Mazzini, is known for the Krumiri Rossi
bakery, which indeed produces
Krumiri: biscuits which have been a speciality of Casale since their legendary invention in 1870 by one Domenico Rossi after an evening spent with friends in Piazza Mazzini’s Caffè della Concordia (now a bank). Also in Via Lanza is the seventeenth-century church of San Giuseppe, probably designed by
Sebastiano Guala; a painting attributed to the
Ursuline nun
Lucrina Fetti (c.1614–1651, brother of
Domenico) shows Christ venerated by Sant’Evasio and includes a very accurate depiction of contemporary Casale with its civic tower. The church and convent of San Francesco, which housed the remains of many of the Marquises of Monferrato, was turned to other uses during the eighteenth century and demolished in the nineteenth. The high open tower which is a landmark of Via Lanza belongs to Palazzo Morelli di Popolo; it has been attributed to
Bernardo Vittone, and also to Magnocavalli—both are believed to have had a hand in the refurbishment of the building.
Via Saffi
Running west from Piazza Mazzini to Piazza Castello is Via Saffi, which contains one of the town’s most recognizable landmarks: the Torre Civica. This brick tower, square in plan and 60 metres high, dates from the eleventh century but suffered severe fire damage in April 1504 when a festival to celebrate the peace between Holy Roman Emperor
Maximillian I and King
Louis XII of France got out of hand. The reconstruction, completed six years later by
Matteo Sammicheli, produced a taller structure which included the current bell-chamber. The balconies attached to the upper part of the tower were added during the period of Gonzaga rule. Subsequent restorations were carried out in 1779 (after a lightning strike which destroyed the fifteenth-century clock) and again in 1920.
Adjoining the tower is the church of Santo Stefano which stands on the east side of a small sqare named after it. The church’s origins date to the beginning of the second millennium, but it was largely rebuilt in the mid-1600s under a project attributed to
Sebastiano Guala; work on the current façade began in 1787 but wasn't completed until the late nineteenth century. Inside are paintings by
Giovanni Francesco Caroto (1480 – 1555),
Il Moncalvo (1568 – 1625),
Giorgio Alberini (1575/6 – 1625/6),
and
Francesco Cairo (1607 – 1665).
Adorning both the walls and the vault are 15
tondi depicting prophets, apostles and the Virgin painted by
Pietro Francesco Guala in 1757, the last year of his life.
The south side of Piazza Santo Stefano, facing back towards Via Saffi, is formed by the
neo-classical Palazzo Ricci di Cereseto. The imposing façade, marked by four massive brick columns, was built in 1806 to an earlier design by the local architect
Francesco Ottavio Magnocavalli.
Also in the square is a marble statue of the archaeologist and architect
Luigi Canina by
Benedetto Cacciatore.
Piazza Castello
Piazza Castello is a large irregularly shaped open space used as a car park and as a market square; it's dominated by the
castle of the
Paleologi which occupies most of its western side. The square arose in 1858 through the demolition of the castle’s eastern
ravelin, and was extended in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century when the remaining ravilins were removed.
The castle
The castle itself is an imposing
15th century military construction, with a hexagonal plan, four round towers and an encircling moat.
Santa Caterina
At the south-east corner of the piazza is the elegant
Baroque church of
Santa Maria delle Grazie, better known by its earlier designation of
Santa Caterina. A master-work of
Giovanni Battista Scapitta, completed after his death by
Giacomo Zanetti, it's marked by an elliptical
cupola, and a façade curvilinear both in plan and elevation.
Teatro Municipale
The theatre, which stands at the north-eastern corner of the piazza at the end of Via Saffi, opened in
1791 with a performance of the
La moglie capricciosa, an
opera buffa by
Vincenzo Fabrizi. Its construction, to a design by Abbot Agostino Vitoli of
Spoleto, had taken six years. However it fell into disuse during the period of
Napoleonic rule and remained closed for several decades. After extensive internal embellishment, the theatre reopened in 1840 with a performance of
Gaetano Donizetti’s
Beatrice di Tenda. In 1861 the theatre was sold by the Società dei Nobili to the local authority (the
comune) which made it more accessible to the general public. Nevertheless it fell again into decline; during
World War II it was used as a store. Major restoration work took place in the 1980s and the theatre finally reopened in 1990 with a performance by
Vittorio Gassmann. Since then it has offered a mixture of theatre, music and dance, while the foyer is used for exhibitions, usually photographic.
The horseshoe-shaped auditorium with stalls, four tiers of boxes and a gallery (or
loggione, for example
the gods) is richly decorated with
frescoes,
stucco,
gilding and
velvet. The curtains of the royal box hang from a structure supported on stucco
caryatids by
Abbondio Sangiorgio who also designed the equestrian statue in Piazza Mazzini.
Via Garibaldi and Sant’Ilario
From the side of the theatre Via Garibaldi leads westwards to the sixteenth-century church of Sant'Ilario, founded in 380 in honour of
Hilary of Poitiers. It was completely rebuilt in 1566 and was largely restructured towards the end of the nineteenth century. The church’s polychrome façade is of interest and it contains two important works by
Niccolò Musso: the
Madonna del Carmine (‘
Our Lady of Mount Carmel’) and
San Francesco ai piedi del Crocefisso (‘
Saint Francis at the foot of the
Crucifix’) originally from the church of San Francesco.
Via Roma and the ghetto
Behind the shops on the south side of Via Roma, which runs eastwards from Piazza Mazzini, lay the
ghetto which persisted until the emancipation of the Jews in Piedmont following Carlo Alberto’s concession of a constitution, the
Statuto Albertino, under the revolutionary pressures of 1848. The building at Vicolo Olper 44 offers no hint from its nondescript exterior that it's a
synagogue, built in 1595, and recognized as one of the most beautiful in Europe. The women’s galleries now host an important Jewish museum. Of particular interest are the
Tablets of the Law in gilded wood, dating from the
eighteenth century, numerous Rimonim (finials to scrolls of the Law) and Atarot (crowns for the scrolls of the Law) carved and with silver
filigree.
The Giardini pubblici and public sculpture
The public gardens which front the railway station extend westwards, dissected by various streets, almost to the southern end of Via Roma. They contain a range of monuments to figures of local and national renown including
Giovanni Lanza (sculpted by
Odoardo Tabacchi, 1887),
Giuseppe Antonio Ottavi (
Leonardo Bistolfi, 1890),
Filippo Mellana (
Giacomo Ginotti, 1887), and
Giuseppe Garibaldi (
Primo Giudici, 1884).
The most important, however, is Bistolfi’s war memorial of 1928 (pictured left). A marble
exedra with four
caryatids in the form of
winged victories is raised on a dias fronted with steps. The bronze sculpture
Il Fante Crociato, a foot soldier in crusader-period costume, takes centre stage; a second bronze a lightly robed
Primavera Italica (Italic Spring) steps down from the platform and out of the ensemble.
Other public sculptures of note in Casale include the monument to King Carlo Alberto in Piazza Mazzini mentioned above, Bistolfi’s 1887 monument to
Urbano Rattazzi in Piazza Rattazzi,
Benedetto Cacciatori’s
Luigi Canina in Piazza Santo Stefano.The
Monumento alla difesa di Casale (
Francesco Porzio, 1897; pictured right), situated to the north of the castle, commemorates the vigorous action which took place during the
First Italian War of Independence in 1849 to defend the city against Austrian troops who had just taken part in the defeat of the Piedmontese army. In the Priocco district, to the south of the historic centre, in Viale Ottavio Marchino, there's a monument by
Virgilio Audagna to the cement industrialist Ottavio Marchino, son of the founder of Cementi Marchino, which is now part of
Buzzi Unicem.
Palazzi
The historic centre is marked by many
palazzi which are often Baroque in appearance (though the substance is often earlier), reflecting the urban renewal which took place in the early decades of the eighteenth century. Among the best known are:
- the fifteenth-century palazzo of the marchesa Anna d'Alençon in Via Alessandria.
- The fifteenth-century Palazzo Treviso, in Via Trevigi, was restructured on behalf of the Anna d’Alençon before being given to the Dominican convent. During the Napoleonic period it was used as a lyceum and has subsequently remained in scholastic use.
- Palazzo Del Carretto, also known as the Casa Tornielli, in Via Canina, again dating from the fifteenth century, now housing a language school.
- The medieval Casa Biandrate, at the junction of Via Guazzo and Via Morini, has preserved its late gothic character.
- Palazzo Sannazzaro, a gothic building in Via Mameli, remodelled in the baroque style by Giacomo Zanetti (1698–1735).
- Palazzo Gozani di Treville, regarded as the most beautiful in the town and as one of the two most important works of Giovanni Battista Scapitta, the other being the church of Santa Catarina, mentioned above. The rococò atrium and courtyard are particularly praised, as is the long and gently curved façade which follows the path of Via Mameli.
- Palazzo Gozani di San Giorgio, now the town hall, was partially rebuilt in the years 1775–8 to a design by Filippo Nicolis de Robilant. The façade is of three orders with its windows surrounded by decorations in stucco. Via Mameli.
- Palazzo Magnocavalli has a façade commissioned from Giacomo Zanetti by the architect Francesco Ottavio Magnocavalli. Inside, the monumental twisted staircase, supported by two columns, fits gracefully into a very restricted space. Via Mameli.
- Palazzo Fornara, built in 1840 in the neo-classical style by the Vercellese Pietro Bosso, forms the west side of Piazza Mazzini. The site was previously occupied by the church of Santa Maria di Piazza which was deconsecrated during the Napoleonic period. Since 1925 it has been a bank.
- Palazzo Langosco, in Via Corte d’Appello, encloses part of the main cloister of the former Augustinian convent complex of Santa Croce. Once the seat of the Senate of Montferrat, it now houses the public library.
- The neo-classical Palazzo Sacchi-Nemours, beside the Teatro Civico in Via Saffi, was built in 1750–2 by the local architect Francesco Ottavio Magnocavalli.
- Palazzo Ricci di Cereseto, in Piazzetta di S. Stefano, has an imposing neo-classical façade fronted by four massive brickwork columns, constructed in 1806 by G. Battista Formiglia, probably following a design by Magnocavalli.
- Palazzo Gaspardone-Ottavi, in Via Cavour, came into the possession of the Ottavi family during the nineteenth century and is noted for Bistolfi’s plaque commemorating Ottavio Ottavi (an oenologist known also, in his home town, for writing the Inno ai krumiri, or ‘hymn to the krumiri biscuits’) and a memorial tablet to Saint Luigi Gonzaga.
Museums and galleries
The civic museum is located in the ancient
convent of Santa Croce, whose cloister is decorated with
frescos by
il Moncalvo.
Music
Casale was an important center for Italian music from the 13th through the 17th centuries. During the
Albigensian Crusade, Casale was a refuge for troubadours fleeing regions to the west; the music of such troubadours may have been decisive in the formation of secular Italian musical styles in the 14th century (see
Music of the Trecento). In the 16th century the town was incorporated into the holdings of the Gonzaga family, who were patrons of music throughout the Renaissance.
The cathedral there has in its archives polyphonic music by
Jean Mouton,
Andreas de Silva, and
Francesco Cellavenia, as well as important prints by
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and other major composers of the period. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Casale was the site for premieres of
operas by
Giulio Cesare Monteverdi,
Pietro Guglielmi, and
Pasquale Anfossi, and was the birthplace of the Swiss-Italian composer
Carlo Evasio Soliva. Currently the city's musical center is the Teatro Municipale.
Economy
Casale is situated in a plain where
rice cultivation is predominant, and in an area of cement-bearing hills and
wineries.
Sport
The town’s
football club,
A.S. Casale, was founded in 1909. Within five years it achieved the twin peaks of its success: in 1913 it became the first Italian club to beat an English professional team (
Reading F.C.), and in the 1913–14 season it won the Italian Championship. The team dropped out of
Serie A in 1934, however, and in the 2006–7 season it's playing in
Serie D/A.
The local
basketball team,
A.S. Junior Libertas Pallacanestro Casale Monferrato, was founded in 1956 and today competes in
LegADue, the second tier of the sport in Italy.
Events
Annual
- Saint Joseph’s Fair (Mostra mercato di San Giuseppe). A fair of industry, commerce, handicraft, and agriculture held since 1946. Mid-March; Cittadella.
- Rice and Roses (Riso&Rose). A festival of concerts, pageants, markets and other events held in and around Casale since 2001. May.
- Folkermesse (from Folk + Kermesse). The world folk music and dance festival, first staged in Casale in 1983, includes the town on its summer itinerary. July–September.
- Magiche Figure. Exhibition of puppet theatre from Italy and abroad. September.
- Festival of Wine and the Monferrato. A celebration of local wine and food together with related events. Mid-September.
Monthly
- Antiques market. Founded in 1973, this popular market is held on the second weekend of the month (except August) in the Mercato Pavia.
- The Artemista craft market and Il Paniere market of organic produce market are held on the third Saturday of each month in Piazza Mazzini.
- Casale Open City (Casale Città Aperta, a play on the title of the classic neorealist film Roma, città aperta). Many of the town’s monuments are open, with free guided tours on the Sunday afternoon. Second weekend of the month.
Twice weekly
- Market days. Tuesday and Friday; Piazza Castello.
Notable Casalesi
Notable people born in Casale, or with close connections to the town, include:
Evasius (died third, fourth or eighth century, perhaps), martyr and patron saint of the town.
Ubertino da Casale (1259–1329), Franciscan preacher and theologian.
Yolande of Montferrat (1274–1317), became Eirene, Empress-Consort of Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor.
Facino Cane (1360–1412), condottiere.
William VIII (1420–1483), the Marquess of Montferrat who established Casale as its definitive capital.
Boniface III ((1424–1494)), Marquess of Montferrat.
Giovanni Martino Spanzotti (born circa 1455), painter,
William IX (1486–1518), Marquess of Montferrat.
Anna d'Alençon (1492–1562), Marchioness of Montferrat.
John George (1488-1533), Marquess of Montferrat.
Boniface IV (1512–1530), Marquess of Montferrat.
Stefano Guazzo (1530–1593), founder of the Casale literary academy the Illustrati.
Niccolò Musso (c.1590 – c.1623), painter of the Baroque period.
Camilla Faà di Bruno (c.1599-1662), the ‘Bella Ardizzina’ who secretly married Francesco Gonzaga Duke of Ferrara and of Montferrat.
Ferdinando del Cairo (1666-1748), a painter of the Italian Baroque school, was born in Casale.
Giacomo Zanetti (1698–1735), master-builder and architect who completed the baroque reconstruction of Santa Caterina, and built several palazzi in the town.
Pietro Francesco Guala (1698-1757), painter of the Piedmontese Baroque school.
Francesco Ottavio Magnocavalli (1707–89), architect.
Carlo Cozio, Count of Montiglio and Salabue (1715–1780), chess player.
Carlo Vidua, Count of Conzano (1785–1830), traveller and archeologist.
Carlo Evasio Soliva (1791–1853), musician.
Luigi Canina (1795–1856), archaeologist and architect.
Joseph Rocchietti, the earliest known Italian-American novelist, was an emigrant from Casale.
Giovanni Lanza (1810–1882), politician.
Ascanio Sobrero (1812-1888), chemist.
Eleuterio Pagliano (1826–1903), painter.
Luigi Hugues (1836-1913), engineer, geographer and musician.
Francesco Negri (1841–1924), photographer.
Giovanni Celoria (1842–1920), astronomer.
Giulio Viotte (1845–78), artist.
Giovanni Camerana (1845–1905), magistrate, poet, art critic: one of the prime members of the scapigliatura movement.
Leonardo Bistolfi (1859–1933), sculptor.
Ugo Cavallero (1880–1943), military commander.
Cesare Maria De Vecchi (1884-1959), politician.
Umberto Caligaris (1901–1940), footballer.
Egidio Ortona (1911–1996), diplomat.
Augusto Segre (1915-1986), writer and antifascist.
Giampaolo Pansa (born 1935), journalist and writer.
Sergio Castelletti (born 1937), footballer.
Giovanni Piana (born 5 April 1940), philosopher.
Roberto Bolle (born 1975), ballet dancer, was born in Casale, although he grew up in Trino Vercellese.
Fictional Casale
A siege of the town plays a significant off-stage role in Alessandro Manzoni’s’s novel The Betrothed, and is the centre of Chapter 2 of the novel The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, who was born in neighbouring Alessandria. Casale also appears in a best-selling historical yarn Bellarion the Fortunate by the Anglo Italian writer Rafael Sabatini. A real 13th century personality, Ubertino of Casale, is a character in Eco's historical novel The Name of the Rose (1980).
References and footnotes
General »
Some of the content of this article comes from (retrieved September 10 2005).
»
History » Grignolio (see above)
;The historic centre » Grignolio (see above)
» Casale città aperta (2002 pamphlet produced by the Museo Civico)
Music » Crawford, David: 'Casale Monferrato', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 18, 2005), .
;Events » Ente Manifestazioni - Casale Monferrato - AL - Italy
» Profilo della città di Casale Monferrato
» Riso & Rose in Monferrato, a flourishing festival!
» Ethnosuoni - Folkermesse
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