Ovada - Ovada

Ovada is a city of Piedmont.

To know

It constitutes the reference center of the Ovadese area to which it gives its name, which has sixteen municipalities and totals about 30,000 inhabitants. It takes its name from the Latin vadum, ford, and Go it was called in some letters that Decimo Brutus sent to Cicero.

Geographical notes

It is located in the Piedmontese Po Valley at the foot of the Ligurian-Piedmontese Apennines, at the entrance to the Stura Valley, an area called Basso Piemonte or Alto Monferrato.

Background

Mentioned for the first time in 967 when Otto I gave the Marquis Aleramo a villa in the territory of Ovada, which was subject to the Monastery of S. Quintino di Spigno Monferrato. Ovada was therefore part of the Aleramic brand, then passing under the dominion of the Marquises of Gavi, of the Marquises del Bosco and finally of the Malaspina, who on various occasions (1272-1277) ceded it to Genoa. Occupied by the Dukes of Milan and attributed to the Trotti family, it was given to the Adorno family, who held it until 1499, when the king of France Louis XII returned it to the Trotti family. Meanwhile the city had grown and now possessed a large parish church, a castle and walls.

In 1528, following the rise of Andrea Doria and the passage of the Republic of Genoa under the protection of the Empire, Ovada, which in the meantime had rebelled against its feudal lords, was conquered by the troops of Bartolomeo Spinola, since the Republic of Genoa he longed for control over the city.

Struck by a severe famine in 1625 and then by the plague of 1630, Ovada lost 4/5 of the population. Released from the contagion in a few months, the citizens decided to erect the church of the Beata Vergine della Concezione, and in 1694 San Paolo della Croce was born. Still under the Genoese dominion, in 1746 during the war of the Austrian succession it was occupied by the Austro-Piedmontese troops, who held it for three years. After these events Ovada spent a few decades of political stability, and silkworm breeding flourished. The city thus becomes a center of textile production on a European level. Meanwhile, agriculture begins to spread to cleared areas and the economy is growing.

Occupied by the French during the Italian campaigns, it became part of the Napoleonic empire. Ovada does not suffer much from particular raids and losses, but on the contrary it becomes more and more flourishing: large public works are carried out, a land register of all the buildings on the city ground is drawn up and the idea of ​​a road that connected directly to Genoa.

At the fall of Napoleon (1814), it passed to the Kingdom of Sardinia (1815). Entering the Kingdom of Italy, therefore, goes through a period of economic growth again: hill cultivation intensified, artisan activities multiply and the first industries are born, the production of Trick and the communication road with Genoa is finally built. The city expands and becomes mainly industrial and artisanal. With the arrival of the railway Ovada reaches the peak of development, the fulcrum of a capillary road system that favors commercial exchanges.

The First World War hit the population heavily. However, with the end of the conflict, industrial activities start to consolidate and increase again. After the Second World War Ovada is once again in production, connected with the A26 since the second half of the seventies. Today the city focuses on craftsmanship, industry and tourism, which has been increasingly consolidated in recent years.

How to orient yourself

Neighborhoods

Its municipal territory includes, in addition to the city, the villages of Costa, Gnocchetto, Grillano and San Lorenzo.

How to get

By car

• It has a motorway exit right on the A26 Genova - Gravellona Toce motorway
• It is crossed by the state road 456 del Turchino
• It is the cornerstone of the provincial road 155 Ovada - Novi Ligure

How to get around

What see

• Parish Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. At the end of the 18th century the old parish church, dedicated to San Bartolomeo, became insufficient and therefore in 1770 it was decided to build a new larger church, whose design was entrusted to the Como architect Giovanni Antonio Delfrate, who was inspired by the baroque basilica of Santa Maria delle Vigne of Genoa; construction began in 1772 and ended nine years later, in 1781; however, the new church was consecrated only in 1801 and no longer dedicated to St. Bartholomew, but to Our Lady of the Assumption. In 1808 a bell tower was built to the right of the façade, according to the original plan; in 1853 the left one was built, twin of the first and also present in the original project.

The facade of the church is in a sober Baroque style and is salient. It is divided into two overlapping bands by a high cornice: in the lower one there are the three portals interspersed with pairs of pilasters; the pattern of the pilasters also continues in the upper order, where there is a rectangular window in the center closed by a polychrome stained glass window depicting the Assumption. The two lateral bell towers reach a height of 47 meters.

The building has a Latin cross plan, with three naves with side chapels, a transept and a deep apse. The central nave is covered with a barrel vault with lunette and is entirely frescoed with scenes from the life of Mary, the work of Pietro Ivaldi, author of all the frescoes on the vaults of the church. The side aisles are covered with a ribbed vault decorated with gilded stucco and frescoes. In the side chapels various works are collected for the most part from the nineteenth century; in the transept, the eighteenth-century statue of the Virgin of the Assumption by Carlo Cacciatori; in the apse the neoclassical high altar in polychrome marble.

The pipe organ, built in 1896 by Carlo Vegezzi-Bossi according to the dictates of the Cecilian reform, is located on the choir in the counter-façade, enclosed within a wooden box richly decorated with sculptures and gilding. Behind the main altar, there is a second pipe organ, built in 1897 by the organ builder William George Trice to accompany the chants during the liturgies. 

• Church of the Immaculate Conception. The church was built after a vow to the Madonna made by the Ovada people in 1631 for the end of the plague. The first stone was laid on 10 June 1640, while it was consecrated on 26 May 1662. Since its construction the building and the adjacent convent have been entrusted to the Franciscans. In the nearby square you can see a small statue dedicated to the holy founder of the order. In 1935 the church was severely damaged by a fire, which led to the almost total reconstruction of the complex which lasted until the seventies, when extensions were made to the chapels and the new convent was built.

The current facade dates back to the reconstruction after the fire of 1935: in neo-Romanesque style, it is painted in black and white bands and has three portals, two mullioned windows and a rose window. The interior is very different from how it once was, that is, simple and devoid of decorations according to Franciscan canons. With a single vaulted nave, its side chapels were rebuilt in the seventies, while the main altar is from the eighteenth century. On the pillars of the central nave there are two paintings by Geronimo Buffa from Ovada, Christ crowned with thorns is Flagellation of Jesus. The church also preserves works by Giuseppe Palmieri in the first chapel on the left and by Emilio Ravera.

• Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The church and the convent behind it were founded in 1481 by the Dominican Father Giovanni Cagnasso da Taggia, as stated in the plaque placed in 1508 above the portal. Between 1797 and 1815 with the Napoleonic occupation it was used first as a barracks and then as a warehouse. After the Congress of Vienna (1815) the building, although stripped of its original altars, was rededicated. With the restorations of the eighties, the bricks of the internal structure were brought to sight, even if on November 26, 1986 a fire seriously damaged the works still kept in the church, such as the nineteenth-century choir stalls. Today the church has modern renovations and although it has been restored it has lost part of the works of art of the past.

The salient façade is very simple and has a semicircular window. Above the portal there is a lunette with a fresco of the Madonna and two Dominican saints. The interior is a Latin cross: the three naves have four spans with barrel vaults for the central one and cross vaults for the lateral ones. The presbytery is Gothic and houses the Baroque altar.

The Romanesque cloister has a portico, but today, with walled arches, it houses school classrooms. The rest of the convent is from the eighteenth century, with a vaulted corridor and spaces used for various uses.

The works preserved in the church are:

Sant'Omobono, seventeenth-century painting by an anonymous Genoese, first right bay

San Vincenzo Ferreri, seventeenth-century altarpiece (the altar, in polychrome marble with the coat of arms of Genoa, was the high altar of the old parish church of Ovada), second right bay

Madonna with Saint Catherine and Saint Mary Magdalene, seventeenth-century painting by Giovan Battista Casoni, fourth right bay

The eighteenth-century altar of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary in the right transept: the central statue of the Madonna is by Francesco Biggi, collaborator of Domenico Parodi, a pupil of Bernini

Killing of Saint Peter of Verona , a 1618 painting by Giovan Battista Bisio, in the chapel on the right transept

The main altar from the Genoese church of Santa Maria di Castello and placed here together with the balustrade of the presbytery in 1690

Cenotaph of Santa Colomba, with the remains of the saint taken from the Roman catacombs in the nineteenth century, chapel in the left transept

San Giuseppe Calasanzio with San Filippo Neri, eighteenth-century painting attributed to Paolo Borroni, third left span

Altar of San Giacinto, Dominican patron of Ovada: below the representation of the city with the inscription "protector uvadae", protector of Ovada, second left span 

• Oratory of the SS. Annunziata. The building dates back to the 14th century; it preserves paintings by Luca Cambiaso, Brea and Schiena, as well as a wooden group of the Madonna del Carmine and one of the Annunciation by Maragliano 
• Oratory of San Giovanni Battista. The seventeenth-century oratory houses the wooden group of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist by A. M. Maragliano. 
• Spinola Palace, Piazza San Domenico. 
• Birthplace of St. Paul of the Cross. 
• Town Hall. 
• Lercaro Castle (in the district Lercaro). 
• Grillano Castle (in the district Grillano). 

Events and parties

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Where stay

Safety

How to keep in touch

Around

• Alexandria
• Acqui Terme
• Novi Ligure
• Tortona

Other projects

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

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