Alessandria Alessandria
Baudolino, a novel which recounts the picaresque adventures of a young scoundrel wandering around the Piedmontese countryside which surrounds Marengo, was dedicated to and named after Saint Baudolino, the protector of the city of Alessandria, by an illustrious fellow-citizen of that city, the semiologist and internationally famous author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco.
In the second week of November, Alessandria dedicates an annual fair to Baudolino, where the area’s superb products go on display. This event, which takes place in the historical centre of the town, consists in a programme of cultural activities and street performances. Its silverware exhibition, “Argenti in Tavola”, aims to draw attention to one of the city’s most important professions: the high level of craftsmanship behind its silverware has won Alessandria the nickname “the City of Silver”.
Alessandria is situated on the planes of the Padania valley, between the Tanaro and Bormida Rivers, at the foot of the hills of the Basso Monferrato. The city took its name from Pope Alexander III. It was founded in 1168, when four villages – Rovereto, Borgoglio, Marengo and Gamodio – were joined together. It attained considerable military importance due to its strategic position as a “gateway” to the Padania valley. The citadel, built between 1725 and 1728 by Giuseppe Ignazio Bertola at the request of King Vittorio Amedeo II and considered to be one of the greatest examples of military architecture, bears witness to the city’s military past. The fortified perimeter wall is star-shaped and spans three kilometres. The village of Borgoglio and most of the medieval buildings were razed to the ground in order to built it. However, the city’s historical centre is marked out by avenues which follow the layout of the old city walls.
The Cattedrale di San Pietro (Cathedral of Saint Peter) in Piazza San Giovanni XXIII, built in 1810 on the site of the ancient gothic cathedral, the church of Santa Maria del Castello, the eighteenth century Palazzo Ghilini and the Palazzo del Municipio (town hall) with its traditional three-faced clock are all of particular historical interest. As far as museums are concerned, the unique Museo del Capello (Hat Museum) is not to be missed. The museum is based at the Borsalino hat factory which, as well as displaying 4000 very diverse items of headwear, provides a record of the career of one of the first Italian capitalists: Giuseppe Borsalino. The Museo della Battaglia di Marengo (Museum of the Battle of Marengo) is just a few kilometres from Alessandria, in Spinetta Marengo, which offers a display of Napoleonic antiques and a large plastic model which charts the course of the battle between Napoleon and the Austrians on June 14th, 1800.
Info
Piazza della Libertà, 1 - 15100 Alessandria
Tel. +39.0131.515414 (Urp) - Fax: +39.0131.515413
Toll free no. 800.111114
E-mail: urp@comune.alessandria.it
www.comune.alessandria.it
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Places
Forte di Fenestrelle
The largest fortified structure in Europe and the longest wall-structure in the world after the Great Wall of China: a 635-meter inclination, 3 km long, 1,300,000 square meters large, 4,000 steps in the Scala Coperta (Covered Staircase), 2,500 steps in the Scala Reale (Royal Staircase), 5 drawbridges, and 183 lights to illuminate the interior.
Castello di Mazzè
In the ancient underground parts of the medieval castle is the Museo della Tortura (Museum of Torture): tools and methods from the Holy Inquisition. The building is surrounded by a large park with a scenic view looking out over the Canavese.
Villa Taranto Botanical Gardens
Villa Taranto and its gardens, which look out over Lago Maggiore, have a vast botanical trove that includes about 1,000 plants, which until today had never been cultivated in Italy, and about 20,000 varieties and species of particular botanical importance.
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People
Enrico Ruggeri
“The city’s centre looks the same as it did at the beginning of the 20th century; I am always reminded of an old advertisement with Ernesto Calindri e Franco Volpi that takes place in a café in the heart of Torino. Its slogan impressed me as a child: Fino dai tempi dei Garibaldini, China Martini (China Martini…. since the time of Garibaldi’s patriots.) This is also the first city in which I performed in front of a large crowd of paying guests. It was 1984 and we were playing at the Pellerina park for the Punti Verdi series of outdoor concerts.”
Cesare Cremonini
“Torino is a very special place that, aside from what it might appear to be, has great musical vitality, many places in which the creativity of the younger generation can be affirmed…this is a city that is truly suitable to the young.”
Davide Ferrario
“But is Torino really like this? When the lights in the theatre went back on and the closing credits of ‘After Midnight’ were running, that was the first question viewers asked me when I was abroad."
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