Oltrepò Pavese - Oltrepò Pavese

Oltrepò Pavese is that part of the territory of the city of Pavia extended beyond the right bank of the Po.

To know

Oltrepò Pavese owes its name to the peculiarity of a territory Lombard, to be south of the river Po.

Geographical notes

This territory is located in the middle of the Northern Apennines, and is geographically and morphologically very similar to that belonging to theEmilia. Oltrepò Pavese is literally wedged between theEmilia Romagna, with the province of Piacenza and the Piedmont with the province of Alexandria. It should also be emphasized that in the southernmost part, along the Alessandria or Piacentino for a few kilometers, there is the border with the Liguria, more precisely with the Province of Genoa.

It has a triangular shape; one side is constituted by the course of the Po, the opposite vertex, towards the south, by the highest elevation of the province of Pavia which is Mount Lesima (1 724 m). The territory consists of a flat part, followed by a large hilly area to the south, and finally (in the southern vertex), a mountainous area (Ligurian Apennines). The highest elevations, in addition to the aforementioned Mount Lésima, are Mount Chiappo (1 700 m), the top of Colletta (1 494 m), Mount Penice (1 460 m).

Its structure is conditioned by the main valley, the Staffora valley which forms the western border, by the high Tidone valley, which flows mainly in the Piacenza area forming the eastern border, and by a complex network of small valleys and hills that are located between the two main valleys. Its main stream is the Staffora, the other streams are: the Ardivestra, the Versa and the upper part of the Tidone with a part of Lake Trebecco. In the southernmost part after the Brallo Pass, in the municipality of Brallo di Pregola, the Pavia area is located in the Trebbia valley and the border is marked by the Trebbia river.

Culture and traditions

The music of the Oltrepò Pavese, included in the area of ​​the Quattro provinces, is traditionally performed with a fife from the Apennines, müsa and accordion. The müsa, an Apennine bagpipe with a single staff, is perhaps the most characteristic instrument and which attracts the greatest curiosities.

On the occasion of festivals, patron saint's feasts, folklore festivals, Easter celebrations (Romagnese) or Carnival it is possible to attend the exhibition of typical instruments that perform dance music such as the giga (two or four), the Monferrina or the Alexandrine. In particular the country of Cegni has preserved the tradition of the carnival, with the story of the poor woman who has to marry the ugly man who is represented with the participation of the whole hamlet and many tourists on Fat Saturday and August 16th. Present the tradition of calendimaggio which in the upper Val Tidone takes the name of galina grisa.

Territories and tourist destinations

Urban centers

Other destinations

How to get

The Oltrepò Pavese is located halfway between Pavia, Alexandria is Piacenza. The capital, Voghera it is 120 km from Turin, 40 km from Alessandria, 30 km from Pavia, 64 km from Piacenza, 64 km from Milan and 100 km from Genoa.

By car

• A7 motorway Milan-Genoa with the toll booth of Casei Gerola.
• A21 motorway Turin-Piacenza-Brescia with the toll booths of Voghera, Casteggio-Casatisma, Broni-Stradella.
• ex state road 10 Padana Inferiore
• former state road 35 dei Giovi
• ex state road 412 of Val Tidone
• ex State Road 461 of the Penice Pass
• former state road 617 Bronese

On the train

• Alessandria-Piacenza railway, railway stations of Voghera, Casteggio, Santa Giuletta, Broni, Stradella is Arena Po.
• Milano-Pavia-Voghera railway, railway stations of Bressana Bottarone, Lungavilla is Voghera.

How to get around

By bike

To learn more, see: Cycle tourism in Lombardy.

What see

• Varzi cell - Where there is a church built with weapons used in the world wars.
• 44.8550469.1495071 Hermitage of Sant'Alberto di Butrio, Abbadia Sant'Alberto, Nice bridge. The construction of the hermitage was begun by Saint Albert himself, perhaps of the Malaspina family, who in 1030 went to live in solitude in the nearby Borrione valley, where there is still a small chapel dedicated to him. 

Museums

• The Accordion Museum of Stradella — Mariano Dallapè of Trentino origin who must have known the Austrian accordeon patented by Demien, starting fromaccordion diatonic that produces different sounds both by pushing and pulling the bellows while the accordion produces only one, always the same, created one of the first accordions in the homonymous factory in Stradella. From the workers of Mariano Dallape 'other accordion factories sprung up; the best known are Fias, Lucchini and Maga. The museum houses ancient accordions and the tools to make them.
• Archaeological Museum of Casteggio - With finds dating back to pre-Roman and Roman times.
• Historical Museum "G. Beccari" of Voghera —
• Ferruccio Lombardi Civic Naturalistic Museum - Born as the Po Museum a Stradella collects fossils from different geological eras collected after the floods of Little.
• Peasant Museum a Casteggio - With a collection of agricultural tools of the past and work tools used by farmers.
• Civic museum of dolls and toys "Quirino Cristiani" in S. Giuletta (village of dolls)

Castles

• Brunette. Of ancient medieval origin, the castle was transformed in 1740 into a country residence by the Marquis Pallavicino Trivulzio. The building, originally surrounded by a moat, has an irregular plan, has a large panoramic balcony and an internal courtyard at a lower level than the main building. Restored at the beginning of the 21st century, it is private property. 
• Cecima. The castle, already mentioned in the year 943, was for a long time the property of the Bishops of Pavia; remains of the walls and two small towers remain. 
• Cigognola. Of the ancient castle, whose construction dates back to the early thirteenth century, remains the soaring square tower, with Ghibelline battlements, although most likely rearranged and revised in the nineteenth century, in the Romantic era. It belonged to the Sannazzaro, to the Beccaria (from 1406), to Giorgio Aicardi (1415), later called Visconti Aicardi Scaramuzza, to Barbara d'Adda (in the eighteenth century), then to her son Alberico Barbiano di Belgiojoso. Under Napoleon the goods were bought by the Gazzaniga, from these to the Arnaboldi Gazzaniga, then to the Brichetto Arnaboldi. The castle is privately owned. 
• Montalto Pavese. Construction in stone and exposed brick, characterized by four towers, built in the year 1595, on what remained of a pre-existing medieval fortress, by Filippo Belcredi at an altitude of 466 meters above sea level. The castle is surrounded by a large park: the Italian garden and the English garden are worth mentioning. Montalto was then owned by the Strozzi until 1617, then by the Taverna (until 1630), then by the Belcredi until the end of the eighteenth century. Since about the middle of the 19th century it has belonged to the Balduino counts, who restored it. 
• Montebello of the Battle. The current building looks like a baroque villa and dates back to the seventeenth / eighteenth century, on the site of a probable medieval fortress: it is of considerable size, with a large adjoining park. The castle is privately owned. 
• Montecalvo Versiggia. The castle is named in the chronicles of the struggles of the early thirteenth century between the emperor Frederick II allied with Pavia, against Milanese and Piacentini. A period of decline probably followed. Since the thirteenth century Montecalvo was owned by the Beccaria, remaining there until the seventeenth century. The Pietragrassa Berio Beccaria family will keep it as a country residence and seat of agricultural properties, thus inhabiting it very rarely. The castle was bought at the beginning of the 19th century by the Pisans Dossi, then becoming the Marquis Brignole Sale of Genoa, who sold it in 1879 to Carlo and Luigi Fiori. After many years of in which it was abandoned, it resumed a housing function. The castle is privately owned. 
• Montesegale. Fortress built by the Gamberana family on a hill in the town: today it is a complex of buildings and courtyards dating back to different periods [. The castle is privately owned. 
• Nazzano. Built by the Malaspina family around the year 1000, the Nazzano Castle was strengthened by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who immediately recognized its strategic position, around 1360. 
• Oramala Castle. Famous, raised before the year 1000, even if the first written attestation is from the year 1029, it was of the powerful Malaspina marquises, who made it the fulcrum of one of the most important marquisates of northern Italy, and who almost without interruption of continuity had it until at the end of the eighteenth century. What remains is only a part of the large complex (the walls are 2.4 meters thick). In 1986 the long and complex reconstruction / restoration campaign began. Private property. 
• Pietra de 'Giorgi. The complex of the Pietra de 'Giorgi castle has the fortress (private property) and a building currently the seat of the Municipality within its enclosure. The castle, probably dating back to the year 1012, was owned by the Sannazzaro family, and in 1402 it was destroyed by the Beccaria, who later restored it. The town took the name of Pietra Beccaria. Franceschina Beccaria married the noble Antonio Giorgi, bringing him Pietra as a dowry. Upon his death, he appointed his nephew Pio Beccaria (from that moment on he will be called Pio Beccaria Giorgi). From there arose the hereditary dispute between Beccaria Giorgi and the Giorgi counts of Vistarino. The controversy was unraveled with the assignment of the fortress to Pio Beccaria Giorgi and the palace (now the Town Hall), located within the enclosure of the castle, to the Giorgi di Vistarino. This palace was alienated by the Counts Giorgi di Vistarino to Giuseppina Meardi Leidi in 1864, and by the latter sold to the Municipality in 1877. The fortress on the other hand was inherited by the Eotwos, the Dal Pozzo and the Dosi. 
• Stefanago. The castle, which stands on the top of a hill, was restored in 1477, but the tower was built in the 12th century: it is the seat of a farm. 
• Visconteo Castle (Voghera). 
• Zavattarello. The castle is mentioned in some diplomas of the years 971 and 972 (property of the Bishop of Bobbio). The fiefdom was a source of contention between Pavia and Piacenza, of which it becomes possession. Without going into the complex feudal passages, we remember that Zavattarello was owned by the Bishops of Bobbio, who gave it to the Landi, who had defeated the enemies Scotti (1264), and to the celebrated Jacopo Dal Verme di Verona (1385). From then on it was owned by the House (with brief interruptions linked to the figures of Galeazzo Sanseverino and Bernardino della Corte) until 1975, when the descendants donated it to the Municipality. The fortress, abandoned by the Dal Verme family for the Second World War, was a battlefield (and severely damaged by a fire in 1944). The manor was restored starting in 1987. It currently houses a museum of contemporary art. 
• Former Isimbardi building (Castello, fraction of Santa Giuletta). Built on an ancient castle of the Beccaria family, at the end of the eighteenth century it was transformed into a neoclassical style villa by the Isimbardi family. The only remains of the pre-existing castle are the prison, a small rectangular room on the basement floor, and some dovetail battlements in the attic. The large cellars and the ancient ice-house are suggestive. The villa is surrounded by a large park with old trees. 

What to do

Where stay

At the table

• Varzi salami
• Voghera mustard
• Schita
• Brasadè of Staghiglione

Drinks

• Bonarda dell'Oltrepò Pavese DOC
• Buttafuoco Oltrepò Pavese DOC
• Barbera Oltrepò Pavese DOC
• Riesling Oltrepò Pavese DOC
• Pinot Nero Oltrepò Pavese DOC
• Moscato Oltrepò Pavese DOC

Safety

Around

Itineraries

• Oltrepò Pavese is part of the Road of Wine and Flavors of Oltrepò Pavese, a path of food and wine tourism promotion, about 60 kilometers long and recognized by the Lombardy Region, which winds through province of Pavia on a territory of 78 municipalities, including: Voghera, Broni, Canneto Pavese, Stradella, Zenevredo, Bosnasco, San Damiano al Colle, Flip it over, Santa Maria della Versa, Montecalvo Versiggia, Golferenzo, Canevino, Rocca de 'Giorgi, Montalto Pavese, Borgoratto Mormorolo, Fortunago, Montesegale, Godiasco, Rivanazzano, Retorbid, Codevilla, Montebello of the Battle, Corvino San Quirico, Oliva Gessi, Mornico Losana, Calvignano, Torricella Verzate, Casteggio, Saint Juliet, Redavalle, Cicognola, Brunette is Montescano.
• Historic villages of the Po - The itinerary, from west to east or vice versa, leads to know some historic villages that rise near the "great river".
• Foliage in Lombardy - In search, in autumn, of the dazzling and spectacular phenomenon of "foliage".

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Oltrepò Pavese

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