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.
Contemporary Age
The Napoleonic period
The first Italian campaign, caused by the expansionistic ambitions of revolutionary France, resulted in the French occupation of Alessandria's citadel. The Russian army, member of the second coalition and led by Alexander Suvorov, drove the French away in 1799. However, following France's victory in the second Italian campaign, which culminated in the battle of Marengo, which took place on Alessandria's territory, the whole Duchy of Savoy came under French occupation.The official annexation to France occurred in 1802, when Alessandria also became the capital of the newly-established department of Marengo. Napoleon decided for major architectural renovations for the city: the citadel was enlarged and its fortifications were modernized, while the ancient Gothic cathedral was demolished and replaced with a new one, in a Neoclassic style. The brass rooster, taken away from Casale, was moved from the cathedral onto the town hall building, while the angel went lost. During this period another fort was built to the North of the city. The remains of a second fort to the South of the city have been sliced in two by a railway ; a third one still remains in the middle of Cristo.
Later, in 1814, the city was conquered by the Austrians and, on 30 May of the same year, following the treaty of Paris, returned to be part of the Duchy of Savoy.
The Risorgimento and Italy's unification
The 1821 insurrection in the Kingdom of Sardinia began in Alessandria: on 10 March 1821, the insurgents, led by Santorre of Santarosa, took control of the citadel and proclaimed the Constitution, raising a tricolour flag for the first time in the Risorgimento, even though it is not known for sure whether the flag was actually green, white and red, or if it had slightly different colours. In 2021 the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, wrote a letter to the mayor of Alessandria to commemorate the bicentenary of the historic event. The revolt, which failed, convinced Charles Felix of Sardinia to give in to pressure from the Austrian Empire, which had already proposed to the King a preventive occupation of the citadel to fight a possible insurrection, aiming to move the western border of the Empire to Alessandria. Thus, the citadel came under foreign occupation for two years. Andrea Vochieri and other five patriots who had taken part in the insurrection were shot.Austrian victory in the First Italian War of Independence led to the armistice of Vignale, with which Austria obtained once again to occupy Alessandria's citadel. Nevertheless, this occupation lasted just for a few months, thanks to pressure from France and the United Kingdom, which judged the conditions imposed by Austria as too strict. Moreover, during the war, Piedmont's government, which feared an Austrian advance, decided to remove the cover of the citadel's bridge to make a possible demolition easier.
In October 1859, Alessandria was made capital of one of the four Piedmont's provinces. The city played a very important role for what concerns logistics and the movement of troops in the Second Italian War of Independence, due to its proximity with the Lombard border: a large portion of the French army gathered in Alessandria prior to moving East with the Savoy army to attack the Austrians. Following Franco-Savoy victory in the war and the expedition of the Thousand, in 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was finally born.
Alessandria in modern Italy
In the second half of the 18th century, the birth of railways and the increasing trade in Northern Italy made of Alessandria one of the most strategic logistic and trade hubs in Italy. Due to its geographical position, among Turin, Milan and Genoa, the town underwent a big population growth, which led to an expansion of its urban territory and to an important industrial development, testified by the success of companies like Paglieri, Gandini and, above all, Borsalino, whose production of the iconic felt hats became famous worldwide. In 1891 the new bridge on the Tanaro, made of bricks, was inaugurated.Urbano Rattazzi, one of the main exponents of the Italian Historical Left, was born in Alessandria. He covered many ministerial positions, first in the Kingdom of Sardinia and then in the Kingdom of Italy, and was appointed twice as Prime Minister, once in 1862 and in once 1867. His were the only two brief leftist governments in Italy during the first years after the unification, as from 1861 to 1876 the young nation's politics was dominated by the Italian Historical Right. A statue of Urbano Rattazzi is today installed in the middle of the central Piazza della Libertà, the town's political centre.
On 25 July 1899, Alessandria became the first capital of an Italian province to be governed by a Socialist, as the clockmaker Paolo Sacco was elected mayor.
During the fascist dictatorship Alessandria maintained its importance: in the 1930s important buildings were built, such as the Post Office building in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, designed by the architect Franco Petrucci and decorated with mosaics from Gino Severini.
During World War II, in December 1943, Alessandria's synagogue was looted and partially destroyed by fascists.
Owing to its marshalling yard and the bridges on the Tanaro and Bormida, which were a crucial part of the link from Liguria to Turin, Alessandria was a strategic military target during World War II and underwent intense Allied bombing.
On 30 April 1944, bombs were dropped on the popular Cristo neighbourhood, in the Southern part of the town, resulting in 239 casualties and hundreds of injured and destroying the municipal theatre, as well. In June the bridges on the Tanaro and the Bormida were attacked and seriously damaged.
Another bombing, on 5 April 1945, on the kindergarten "Maria Ausiliatrice" in via Gagliaudo, next to the cathedral, resulted in 160 casualties. The latter is still remembered as particularly infamous by Alessandria's community, since it hit a nunnery, hence a civilian site, and occurred just 20 days before the Italian liberation from fascism, when the war was almost over, thus being irrelevant for the unfolding of the events. In the end, 559 Alessandrini lost their lives due to aerial bombings in World War II.
On 29 April 1945, the city was liberated from the German occupation and the fascist rule by the partisan resistance and troops of Brazilian Expeditionary Force.
After the war, Alessandria developed along with the rest of Northern Italy, becoming increasingly wealthier in the context of the Italian economic miracle. Such a growth was also fuelled by consistent immigration of Southern Italians, who significantly contributed to demographics, as Alessandria overcame the threshold of 100000 inhabitants in the 1970s.
The city was not spared from the political and criminal events of that period. In May 1974, a prison revolt resulted in 7 casualties and 14 injured. Moreover, the first meetings of the Red Brigades were held in a farmhouse nearby the town and in 1975 the kidnapping of Vittorio Vallarino Gancia, son of the owner of the homonymous wine producer, occurred in Melazzo.
On 6 November 1994, Alessandria was heavily hit by a severe flooding of the Tanaro river, caused by the relentless rain of those days. A large part of the city was submerged, including residential areas. The flooding caused the death of 11 people and very severe damage to both houses and economic activities of the area. On 26 November 2024, the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, paid tribute to the tragic event by visiting the city and inaugurating a remembrance monument in front the Meier bridge.
In 1998 Alessandria became the site, together with Novara and Vercelli of the University of Eastern Piedmont, named after Amedeo Avogadro, which became Piedmont's third public university, after the University of Turin and the Politechnic University of Turin.
In 2001 a new bridge on the Tanaro was inaugurated, called the "Tiziano bridge". Fifteen years later, in 2016, a new single-span bridge, named after the architect who designed it, Richard Meier, took the place of the old Cittadella bridge, whose spans posed a risk in case of intense rain due to the accumulation of debris.
On 8 March 2020, Alessandria was among the first provinces, which were declared "red zones", hence in quarantine, because of the very high contagion rate of COVID-19. Soon afterwards, the whole of Italy was also declared a red zone.
Jewish history
The first known Jew in Alessandria, named Abraham opened a loan bank in or about 1490. In 1590, the Jews were expelled from the Duchy of Milan, and one of Abraham's descendants travelled to Madrid, which ruled the Duchy, and was permitted to stay in the town due to a large sum owed him by the government. Of the 230 Jews living in the city in 1684, 170 were members of the Vitale family. The Jewish Ghetto was established in 1724. Between 1796 and 1814, among the rest of Italian Jewry, the city Jewish congregation was emancipated, under French influence. According to Benito Mussolini's census in 1938, the town had 101 Jews. On 13 December 1943, the synagogue on Via Milano was attacked by supporters of the Italian Social Republic. Books and manuscripts were taken out of the synagogue and were set on fire at Piazza Rattazzi. In total, 48 Jews were deported from the province of Alessandria, most of them to Auschwitz where they were murdered.Geography
Alessandria is located at an altitude of about 100 meters above sea level, on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, close to their confluence.Its favourable geographic position, together with its big train station and its three motorway exits, make it a strategic hub for trade and transport. The city is served by the A21 and the A26 motorways. Moreover, it has a ring road that runs along the city border from North to South, which has many urban exits, as well as connections linking Alessandria with the main smaller towns of its province.
The city is characterized by long and wide boulevards, which make vehicle circulation quite smooth, spacious squares and a pedestrian-oriented city centre.
Climate
Alessandria is characterized by the typical Po valley's climate, which is humid subtropical. Winters are cold and foggy, while summers are hot and humid.Rainfall is not very abundant and occurs mostly in autumn and spring. Alessandria's climate is more continental than in the rest of Piedmont: winters tend to be harsher due to the higher number of foggy days, while summers tend to be more humid. July is the warmest and driest month, with 40 mm of rainfall on average that is usually concentrated in one or two storms. As a consequence, while minimum temperatures in winter often sink below 0 °C, maximum temperatures can reach peaks of 38/39 °C on the warmest days in summer.
Demographics
As of 2025, Alessandria has a population of 92,518, of whom 48.9% are male and 51.1% are female. Minors make up 14.2% of the population, and seniors make up 26.3%, compared to the Italian average of 14.9% and 24.7% respectively.As of 2024, the foreign-born population is 17,627, equal to 19.2% of the population. The 5 largest foreign nationalities are Albanians, Romanians, Moroccans, Ukrainians and Nigerians.
| Country of birth | Population |
 AlbaniaReligionThe most diffused religion in Alessandria is Christianity; particularly, the vast majority of Christians are Catholic. The city is indeed home to the Diocese of Alessandria, which is suffragan of the Archdiocese of Vercelli and belonging to the ecclesiastical region of Piedmont. Alessandria's bishop is Guido Gallese. In 2022 the Diocese of Alessandria counted 140 500 baptized out of 153 500 inhabitants.Nevertheless, several religious minorities are present, both of antique origin, like the Jewish one, and as direct consequence of immigration. The most diffused religious minorities are:
Institutions and associations
GovernmentThe mayor of Alessandria is Giorgio Abonante, member of the Italian Democratic Party. He won the communal elections in June 2022: after gaining 42.0% of the votes in the first round, he won the runoff election with 54.4% of the votes, beating the centre-right coalition, led by Gianfranco Cuttica di Revigliasco, and replacing him as mayor of the city. Abonante's coalition was composed, in order of votes gained in the 2022 election, by the Italian Democratic Party, the civic list Lista Abonante per Alessandria, the Moderates, the civic list Alessandria civica, the Five Star Movement and the Greens.SymbolsCoat of armsAlessandria's coat of arms dates back to the same years of the town's foundation, as it was established in 1175 to celebrate the end of Barbarossa's siege.With a decree of the Head of the Government on 6 March 1941 the blazon of Alessandria's coat of arms is: Originally, the supporters were two angels, but they were replaced by two griffins in 1814. Some people claim that the red cross comes from Milan's coat of arms, adopted by many communes belonging to the Lombard league. Others, instead, claim that the red cross should be attributed to gift that pope Alexander III offered to the town with the provision of the ius episcopale: the Vexillum Beati Petri, of white colour to the red cross. HonoursIn 2016 Alessandria received a special mention for: "...the constant effort for accessibility in hard times, for its effort to make the urban environment accessible to all citizens independently of their capacity or age", in the context of the European Access city award.CultureEducationLibraries
SchoolsAlessandria can count on several high schools, which attract students from all over the province and even some from other provinces:
UniversitiesTogether with Novara and Vercelli, Alessandria is home to the University of Eastern Piedmont, named after Amedeo Avogadro. Four of the seven departments of the university are indeed in Alessandria : the Department of Sciences and Technological Innovation, the Department of Law and Political, Economical and Social Studies, the Department of Studies for Economy and Business and the Department of Humanities.Alessandria is also home to a seat of the Polytechnic University of Turin. Museums
TheatreAlessandria's theatrical production flourished over the centuries.Theatre of Palazzo GuascoIn the new political context following the peace of Utrecht, Alessandria found new stimuli for its social and cultural life. For instance, the Marquis Filippo Guasco Gallarati of Solerio decided to install a small public theatre in his palace : the first city theatre was thus born. On March 27, 1729 the King of Sardinia Victor Amadeus II handed over to the Marquis the royal authorization for the opening and the management of his theatre.In September of the same year, at the presence of the Crown Prince Charles Emmanuel, the theatre was officially inaugurated. In 1766 the aversion to the theatre from the bourgeois and the clergy resulted in the marquises of Solerio giving up: in that year the last play of Pietro Metastasio's Semiramis took place, after which the theatre was shut down. The marquises then handed the royal authorization to the decurions so that they could use them for the new Municipal Theatre. Municipal TheatreThe Municipal Theatre was built within the town hall building. One can still see the theatre's foyer, which hosts today the Office for Public Relations.The construction began on September 6, 1772 and, three years later, the architect Giuseppe Caselli handed to the city its new theatre. In the evening of October 17, 1775 the front curtain of the new theatre was opened for the first time. From the stage one could notice the perfect hemicycle of the hall arranged in a horseshoe shape, with four tiers of boxes and, above them, a small paradise. The theatre had around 1500 seats. The piece that was selected for the inauguration was Antigona set to a libretto of Gaetano Roccaforte and music of Ferdinando Bertoni. One of the most famous 19th century conductors that played on the stage of the Municipal Theatre was Antonino Palminteri. The theatre's life ended in 1944 when, during the aerial bombing of May 1st, the theatre and the part of the building to which it belonged were seriously damaged by a fire. Communal TheatreToday's main theatre in Alessandria is the Communal Theatre in viale della Repubblica, built between 1969 and 1978 in the place of the old theatre Virginia Marini, which was damaged by bombs during World War II and demolished in 1965. It has more or less 1200 seats in its main hall. Two side halls are also present, the "Ferrero Hall" and the "Zandrino Hall".The Communal Theatre was shut down in 2010 due to the asbestos present in the heating system, in the covers of the seats and in the theatre's air. Clean-up works were suspended after a few months and resumed in 2013 thanks to the contribution of Alessandria's Savings Bank Foundation. The theatre should partially reopen in autumn 2026. Other theatres
MusicAlessandria is home to the Conservatorio Antonio Vivaldi. It was born as a free music school in 1858, thanks to the support of the city administration of the time. Around 1880 the school was enlarged and in 1892 the communal council issued a regulation in 58 articles. In 1928 it became a Civic Music High School and in 1955 it was moved into a wing of Palazzo Cuttica di Cassine, next to the cathedral. Starting from 1969 it became a State Conservatorio, with an annexed middle school.CuisineThe typical dishes and desserts of Alessandria, apart from those of Piedmont's tradition, are:
SightsThe city centre is characterized by the spacious Piazza della Libertà, which was known back in the day first as Platea Maior and successively, after the Italian unification, as Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. The place-of-arms, wanted by Napoleon, was obtained by demolishing, in 1803, the antique 12th century St. Peter's Cathedral, which was enlarged in the 13th century by Casale's architect Ruffino Bottino. In the first years of the 2000s a part of the old cathedral's foundations were brought to light for study purposes and then recovered. In the middle of the square there is a statue to Urbano Rattazzi from Ferruccio Pozzato, which replaced the older statue of Giulio Monteverde, melted in 1943 to obtain metals, during World War II.Civil architecture12th–13th centuryPalatium Vetus. The palace, in the central piazza della Libertà, was built around 1170. It played the function of Broletto in the 13th and 14th centuries, hence the centre of the political, administrative and judiciary life of the medieval commune. After many vicissitudes, in 1856 the Municipality of Alessandria granted the palace to the Kingdom of Sardinia, which stationed there the guards of the Division Command. Until 1995 the building hosted the Military Presidium and District and, since 2012, it is the headquarters of city's savings bank foundation, which financed its restoration.17th century
18th century
19th century
20th century
21st century
Religious architecture12th–13th century
14th–15th century
17th century
18th century
19th century
20th century
Military architecture18th century
19th century
Monumental trees
Events
SportThe town's professional football team is US Alessandria. Their stadium also hosts Juventus Next Gen, the reserve team for Serie A club Juventus Turin.TransportAlessandria railway station, opened in 1850, forms part of the Turin–Genoa railway. It is also a junction for six other lines, to Piacenza, Novara, Pavia, Cavallermaggiore, Ovada and San Giuseppe di Cairo, respectively. The nearest airports are Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport, Turin Airport and Milan's Malpensa Airport and Linate Airport.Notable people
Twin towns - sister citiesAlessandria is twinned with:
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