Alessandria
Alessandria is a city and commune in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. With a population of 92,518, it is the 3rd-largest city in Piedmont and the 53rd-largest in Italy.
Known for the famous hat manufacturing company Borsalino and for its proximity to the historical site of the battle of Marengo, led by Napoleon, the town is an important agricultural, industrial and logistic hub within its region and Italy's North-West. With a surface extension that makes it Piedmont's largest municipality and a population of 92 839 inhabitants , Alessandria is located in the centre of the so-called "industrial triangle", whose vertices are Turin, Milan and Genoa. Alessandria is also home to one of the headquarters of the University of Eastern Piedmont, which is an academic institution that has a tripolar structure shared with Vercelli and Novara.
History
Ancient Age
Prior to the Roman conquest, the area of Alessandria was occupied by the Statielli, people who belonged to the group of Ligures. By the end of the 3rd century BC, the Roman conquest of Cisalpine Gaul occurred, which led to the romanization of Ligures. In 42 BC the province of Cisalpine Gaul was abolished and integrated into Roman Italy. The villages of Rovereto and Bergoglio, from which the modern-day town originated, were probably founded during the first centuries of the Roman Empire. Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and that of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in the following century, the territory was divided in manorialisms during the Lombard Kingdom, among which the most prominent one was Marengo. In Marengo, the tower of Theodelinda was built in the 8th century.Middle Ages
The foundation
Italy passed in 774 from the Lombards to the Frankish Kingdom. The manorialism of Rovereto, which will have a key role in the birth of Alessandria, probably dates back to this period. In 962 the King of Germany Otto the Great conquered Italy and established the Holy Roman Empire. Nonetheless, Italian towns preserved a certain autonomy and were required to pay taxes to the Emperor only when he would travel to Italy. Frederick Barbarossa decided that such a situation was not good anymore, therefore he established the Diet of Roncaglia and, in 1162, destroyed Milan, the most important Italian commune at the time. The other communes decided therefore to join forces and fight against the Emperor to preserve their autonomy. To do so, they gave birth to the Lombard League. To attract the Emperor to Italy, the League founded a new civitas, an act that was an exclusive imperial privilege. The city, which was simply known as Civitas Nova, was established in the area of Rovereto, both because it was close to the possessions of the March of Montferrat, loyal ally of the Empire, and because its position was easily defendable, being located between the Tanaro and Bormida rivers. The new-born town was populated with the contributions of nearby villages and fortified with funding from Republic of Genoa. On 3 May 1168, the three consuls of Civitas Nova signed in Lodi the adhesion to the Lombard League; as of today, this date is still considered the official date of foundation of the city. Two years later, the new-born town was offered to Pope Alexander III who agreed to make it his fiefdom, thus legitimating the fight of Northern Italy's communes against the Emperor. The city's name was thus changed to Alessandria.The provocation of the communes worked as planned: the Emperor came to Italy in 1174 and on 29 October, after having destroyed Susa and defeated Asti, laid siege to Alessandria. Against all expectations, Alessandria's people resisted for the whole winter and, on 12 April, the Emperor gave up the siege, as the League's army was coming to the city's defence. The armies met each other in Montebello but, instead of fighting, they decided to negotiate a peace. However, peace talks failed, leading to the famous battle of Legnano, which constituted a clear defeat for Barbarossa. Nevertheless, after the Peace of Constance Alessandria was given to the Emperor and it was renamed Cesarea.
A legend says that, during the siege, the city was saved by a quick-witted peasant, Gagliaudo: he fed his cow with the last grain remaining within the city, then took it outside the city walls until he reached the Imperial camp. Here he was captured, and his cow cut open to be cooked: when the Imperials found the cow's stomach filled with grain, Gagliaudo was asked the reason to waste such a rich meal. He answered that he was forced to feed his cow with grain because there was such a lot of it, and no room to place it within the city. The Emperor, fearing that the siege would last too long, left Alessandria free. A statue of Gagliaudo can be found on the left corner of the city's cathedral.
The free commune
In 1193 the town was granted as a fief to Boniface of Montferrat. A few years later, however, the citizens rebelled to the imperial authority, abandoned the name Cesarea and allied with the neighbouring towns of Asti and Vercelli. The dispute was eventually solved by the mediation of Milan and Piacenza. This was the beginning of a period of truce between Alessandria and the March of Montferrat, characterized by numerous diplomatic disputes and rare alliances. Allied with Vercelli, the Alessandrini took part in the battle of Casei Gerola of 1213 and in the destruction of Casale Monferrato in 1215: in the latter, Alessandria's soldiers stole from Casale Monferrato Cathedral the corpses of Saint Evasius, Saint Natale and Saint Proietto, as well as two brass statues depicting a rooster and an angel, which were placed on the pinnacles of Alessandria's old cathedral. The rooster is still visible today on top of Alessandria's town hall building. Fighting with Montferrat resumed in 1228, when Boniface II allied with Asti and declared war on Alessandria. The intervention of the second Lombard League, which laid siege to Mombaruzzo, convinced Boniface II to give up his war.In the second half of the 13th century, Piedmont's political equilibrium started to change. Alessandria and many other communes had appointed William VII of Montferrat as city's captain. However, in 1291 Asti's citizens, that were also under the rule of William VII, promised to the Alessandrini 85000 golden florins to capture the Marquis. The Marquis was lured to the city with an excuse, imprisoned and starved to death a few months later. His son John I declared war on Asti and submitted it, but died without any heirs in 1303. Charles II of Naples exploited this situation to occupy all cities south of the Tanaro River, establishing the County of Piedmont.
In 1345, following the battle of Gamenario, the army of Montferrat and that of Milan divided the Angevin possessions between them, therefore Alessandria went under the protection of Luchino Visconti. In 1391 the army of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, commanded by Jacopo Dal Verme, heavily defeated the French army led by Jean III of Armagnac in the battle of Alessandria. The victory allowed Gian Galeazzo Visconti to unify its territories in the Duchy of Milan. The centralization of power in the Duke's hands caused an uprising in Alessandria in 1403, which was quelled by Casale's commander Facino Cane, who took the opportunity to return to his hometown the corpses of the saints that were stolen two centuries before. Cane, who dreamt of creating his own state, had himself appointed as Lord of Alessandria, but after his death, in 1412, the city returned to the Visconti. In 1417 Filippo Maria Visconti, to end the fighting between the factions of Guelphs and Ghibellines, established the party of the Ducal House, welcoming noble families from both factions and granting to both of them a common coat of arms and a place to hold meetings.
In 1447, with the passing of Filippo Maria Visconti, the Visconti dynasty died out and Milan's citizens proclaimed the Golden Ambrosian Republic. Charles, Duke of Orléans and Lord of Asti claimed his right to the succession of the Duchy and started an invasion of Milan's possessions, plundering and destroying the castles of Annone and Felizzano. The Alessandrini, led by Bartolomeo Colleoni, broke the siege of Bosco Marengo and defeated Asti, ending the Charles's claims.
Modern Age
The county of Alessandria remained steadily under Milan and followed its destiny: initially the House of Sforza restored the Duchy, which was subsequently occupied multiple times by the French, then Milan became a Spanish province. With its submission, first to Milan and then to Spain, Alessandria lost that autonomy that had distinguished the city ever since its foundation, even though its new political stability favoured its rapid development, which made of the town an important commercial hub between Lombardy and Genoa. The Tanaro bridge, whose construction started in 1455 after the will of Francesco Sforza, was equipped with new flooring and covering during the 17th century.The city was then affected by the Franco-Spanish War: Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti and Francesco I d'Este, at the head of the Franco-Savoy army, tried to conquer Alessandria, which was defended by the Spanish-Lombard army, in 1657. The siege failed and the city stayed Lombard.
In 1707, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Alessandria was occupied by the imperial army, which was commanded by Prince Eugene of Savoy. At the end of the conflict, the peace of Utrecht resulted in the annexation of Alessandria to the Duchy of Savoy. The city's strategic position, on the border with the Austrian provinces of Lombardy, induced Victor Amadeus II to fortify it by building an imposing star-shaped citadel, which took the place of Bergoglio. Defeat in the battle of Bassignana and the subsequent French siege of the citadel seemed to mark the Savoy fate in the war of the Austrian succession, but the situation was reversed with the battle of Piacenza.