Motta Baluffi - Motta Baluffi

Motta Baluffi is a center of the Lombardy.

To know

Center of the Casalasca area ofOglio Po on the border with the Cremonese area proper. Agricultural town with interesting naturalistic areas.

Geographical notes

In Lower Po Valley, on the left bank of the river Po, 23 kilometers from the provincial capital Cremona and 17 kilometers from Casalmaggiore, capital of the Casalasca area. At the foot of the Po embankment, Motta Baluffi is however separated from the river bed by about five kilometers of floodplain terrain, which constitutes a rich natural heritage, and is set up in a protected park.

Background

Motta Baluffi rises along the ancient one Road of the Embankments, which following the course of the river Po leads from Cremona to Casalmaggiore, and in Roman times it connected Cremona to Brixellum (today's Brescello, which was then an important Roman center). Some historians affirm that along this ancient path the Etruscans had founded some centers.

The first documents mentioning the town date back to the 12th century, but the area was certainly affected by inhabited centers even previously; it seems that in the nearby Solarolo Monasterolo there was an important Lombard river port. The Baluffi attribute is perhaps due to a landowning family in the area; a local tradition says instead that it derives from the dialect luf which would indicate the Lupi family, from which Motta dei Lupi (in dialect by luf), transformed over time into Baluffi.

The area, for a long time subject to flooding of the river, and often marshy, constituted for the town a sort of defense that kept it away from the great events of history; the area was then reclaimed thanks to the work of the Benedictines. These endowed the coastal centers with hermitages as well as reception and care facilities for the pilgrims who passed through these places. In the 12th century in Motta there was a hospital for the care of the poor, the pellagrosi, the sick which was called San Cataldo della Motta, from the name of the parish church. Solarolo Monasterolo also had the settlement of monks, the Umiliati; traces of the architecture of a monastic cloister can still be guessed in the buildings near the church of Solarolo, which in fact hands down the memory with the Monasterolo attribute in the name.

In the sixteenth century Motta saw the passage of Venetian troops intent on conquering this area of ​​the Po valley, directed to the siege of Cremona. Subsequently, no significant event affected this corner of the river plain, which still today lives in a dimension of tranquility, surrounded by the river and its fertile countryside.

How to orient yourself

How to get

By plane

• 45.6661869.7018081 Bergamo-Orio al Serio Airport (Caravaggio), Via Aeroporto 13, Orio al Serio, ☎ 39 035 326323. 
• 45.42555610.3269442 Brescia Airport (D'Annunzio), Via Aeroporto 34, Montichiari (Connections with Brescia airport are guaranteed by public transport via the bus. The stop a Brescia city ​​is located at the bus station (number 23), while that of the airport is at the front of the terminal. There are also connections to the city of Verona via bus / shuttle line 1), ☎ 39 045 8095666, @[email protected]. Charter only 
• 45.39666710.8877783 Verona Airport (Catullus), Boxes of Sommacampagna, ☎ 39 045 8095666, @[email protected]. 
• 44.821810.296034 Parma airport (G. Verdi), Via Emilia - Golese locality, ☎ 39 0521 951511. 

By car

• Cremona motorway exit on the A21 Turin - Brescia motorway
• It is located on the provincial road 85 Cremona Casalmaggiore - Bassa di Casalmaggiore

On boat

• Motta Baluffi is equipped with a river dock on the Po for motorboats and river boats.

On the train

Railway station:

• to Casalmaggiore (17 km.) On the line Parma - Brescia;
• in Cremona (23 km.) on the line Mantua - Cremona for Milan

By bus

• Coach line Casalmaggiore - Cremona

How to get around

What see

• 45.05439310.2596161 city ​​Hall. A late nineteenth-century porticoed building in a fifteenth-century style houses the municipal seat of Motta Baluffi. 
• 45.05279510.2597422 Parish Church of San Cataldo. The building of the parish church dedicated to San Cataldo is characterized by a simple facade with a tympanum decorated with two statues and a cross. The building has a Latin cross plan; the nave ends with an apse in exposed brick. The bell tower has a belfry that ends with four small gables surmounted by a dome. 

In Solarolo Monasterolo

The town rises next to Motta Baluffi, further upstream along the course of the Po, and like Motta it is at the foot of the embankment. The Monasterolo attribute seems to hand down the presence of a monastic settlement dating back to 1000 AD.

• 45.05812810.2307943 Cascina Stanga. At the foot of the main embankment of the river Po in Solarolo Monasterolo, the Cascina Stanga draws attention with its imposing and soaring portal, made even higher by the long pinnacle that starts from the top of the curvilinear tympanum that overlooks it. The farmhouse develops at the end of the courtyard, framed by the high passing face of the majestic portal.

Until the mid-eighteenth century it belonged to the Maggi family. It then passed into property to the Vallardi marquises, then to the Silvas. Finally, in the early twentieth century, it became the property of the Stanga family. The building retains some traces of a pictorial decoration.

The complex is also called Villa Bertini, or Villa del Corgnacco, but also the Raven tout-court. The latter denomination is due to the presence on the pediment of the portal of a copper crow of considerable size: in fact it has a wingspan of two meters. This work has practically always been a symbol of the town of Solarolo Monasterolo (Sularóol from Curgnàch precisely, but also alone The Curnàc in the various local dialects). 

• 45.05826210.2328544 Parish church of SS. Apostles Peter and Paul. There are no documentary traces of when the original church was built. It is likely that, as in all the towns along the Po, a religious building existed in the Matildic period, with the aim of providing a resting and resting point for pilgrims during their journey along the ancient road of the embankments, up to the I arrive at a transit point beyond the Po, to head towards Rome or the Holy Land.

The parish registers document religious activity starting from the seventeenth century.

The bell tower was completely rebuilt in 1847; surmounted by a square drum, with two gables on two opposite sides, it is completely unusual both in the Casalasco Viadanese area of ​​Oglio Po, and certainly in general in the type of bell towers.

The tympanum of the facade is slender by cinsue pinnacles; inside a fresco gives color to the whole, as well as the one above the entrance door of the temple. On the sides, in two niches, each framed by two pairs of columns that support the tympanum, the statues of Saints Peter and Paul, to whom the church is dedicated.

Inside it preserves an eighteenth-century organ and a wooden statue of San Rocco, which was the object of particular veneration in the past, with ceremonies and processions. 

The curiosity'

The country is remembered in some Itineraries of the Mystery since in a small chapel (one Majesty', as these votive constructions are called in the area) the symbol called appears on an ancient funerary urn Flower of Life or Celtic Rose or Sixth day of Genesis, since the petals of this stylized flower are obtained from the rotation of six circles or spheres each corresponding to a day of creation.

It is an ancient symbol, present in many civilizations, known by the first Coptic Christians but also by the Etruscans, Chinese, Jews, Celts, and is linked to esoteric practices and beliefs. According to supporters of these mysterious itineraries, this existing symbol in Solarolo would be linked to the presence of the convent of the Umiliati, a religious movement that developed in Lombardy between the 12th and 13th centuries.

Events and parties

• San Cataldo patronal fair. May 10. 
• Contest "Country in Bloom". In July. 
• Festival (Solarolo Monasterolo). Third Sunday of September. 
• country Festival. First Sunday of October. 

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Average prices

• 45.05403510.2573331 Bar Trattoria La Pace, via Roma 22, ☎ 39 0375 969001. 
• 45.0544110.2579612 Locanda La Motta, via Argine Casalmaggiore 84 (towards Casalmaggiore), ☎ 39 0375 570002. 

Where stay

Moderate prices

• 45.05425810.2598061 La Canonica Hostel, Via Chiesa 3 (in Solarolo Monasterolo), ☎ 39 0375 969013, @[email protected]. 

Safety

How to keep in touch

Post office

• 45.05425810.2598065 Italian post, Gaboardi Square 1, ☎ 39 0375 969027, 39 0375 969377. 

Keep informed

• Oglio Po news. Computer newspaper of Oglio Po. 
• ^{[link not working]}The Envoy. Online newspaper of the province - Casalmaggiore Chronicle 
• The province, Via Pozzi 15, ☎ 39 0375 200493, fax: 39 0375 201466. Daily newspaper - Casalmaggiore editorial staff 

Around

Crested Newt

Perch

• Castelponzone - The country of rope makers, to which the local museum is dedicated, has maintained its appearance of an old Po Valley center with porticoes; in its urban planning you can guess the design of the fortifications it once had, when it was a feud and Castle of the Ponzone. It is part of the most beautiful villages in Italy.
• Scandolara Ravara - The Old church, of Romanesque origin, isolated at the end of the village near the cemetery, contains a surprising treasure of frescoes and is one of the most important examples of the period in the area ofOglio Po.
• Sabbioneta - City of foundation, UNESCO World Heritage Site, maintains the walls within which the magic of ideal urban planning by Vespasiano Gonzaga has remained intact; the Teatro all'Antica, the Palazzo Ducale, the Gallery, the Incoronata church are some of its monuments that stand out in a context that has been admirably preserved.
• Colorno - Its Royal Palace belonged to the Sanseverino family, then to the Farnese family, to Maria Luigia of Austria, to the Bourbons; it is by far the most important monument of this little Versailles Parma, which also offers a small but beautiful historic center, close to the Lorno stream that gives it its name and Parma, not far from the Po.
• Casalmaggiore - Capital of Casalasco, protected by mighty embankments, the city develops parallel to the bed of the Po. The wide breath of the main square, the undeniable majesty of the Town Hall and the Cathedral reveal its character as an important center of the Bassa. The Sanctuary of the Madonna della Fontana, the church of Santa Chiara, the church of the Hospital are among its outstanding monuments.

Oxbow of Gerole nature reserve

The nature reserve Oxbow of Gerole is a protected area of ​​48 hectares, located in the Po floodplain in the territory of the Municipalities of Motta Baluffi and Torricella del Pizzo, managed by the provincial administration of Cremona. It develops in the area of ​​two ancient meanders of the river, which now no longer represent the main bed of the Po, and are reached by its waters only during the recurrent large floods. and aquatic and marshy flora, with woodland formations of willows, oaks, elms, maples, cherry trees, poplars, as well as numerous species of shrubs. In front of the area there is an island in the main course of the river. For the fauna, the reserve is one of the last areas in which the pelobate survives, a small toad native to the Po Valley, a species that is seriously in danger of extinction; there are also: the crested newt and the speckled one, the common and emerald toad, lizards and green lizards, the little worm, the rat snake, water snakes, the smooth snake.

Among the birds, 135 species have been classified, half of which nesting, and therefore live and populate the area, including the little bittern, the grebe, the pochard, the reeds, the rare salciaiola, the gardener, the bunting yellow, the nightjar, the harrier.The area is also a valuable stopping point for migrant species, as well as infrequent species such as the black stork, the crane, the great white heron.

In this naturalistic context theAquarium of the Po, located in the Ronchetto farmhouse, in the floodplain area four and a half kilometers from the town. In this unique aquarium, the aquatic environments of the Po and the fish species present in the great river are reproduced in 70 tanks.

Among the fish: catfish, rudd, perch, grayling, crucian carp, bleak, eel, even a sturgeon.

The aquarium also pays attention to non-native species, such as decorative fish such as crucian carp. The testimony of river life is completed by the presence of shells, crayfish, turtles, newts, tree frogs.

Born in 2004 as a didactic tool especially for schoolchildren, the aquarium has also established itself over time as a testimony to the environmental study and its safeguarding. It takes advantage of the proximity to the river dock, which allows the arrival of school groups, but also of tourists attentive to environmental and ecological problems, through a picturesque river route by boat.

The aquarium is open to the public on Sundays from 10 to 12 and from 15 to 19. On reservation on other days, for school groups and groups.

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Motta Baluffi
• Commons contains images or other files on Motta Baluffi

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