Rivarolo del Re - Rivarolo del Re

Rivarolo del Re is a center of the Lombardy.

To know

Rivarolo because it is located on the shore of a branch of the Oglio which then disappeared; King's because in the territory of Casalmaggiore, in the Duchy of Milan, subject to the King of Spain; the name distinguished him from the neighbor Rivarolo Outside, (outside the Duchy of Milan), now Rivarolo MantovanoAfter its detachment in the second decade of the twentieth century from Casalmaggiore, to which it had always been subject, its municipal territory took the name of Rivarolo del Re and United, to establish equal dignity between the communities making up the new municipal aggregation: Rivarolo del Re, Villanova, Brugnolo, Breda Azzolini.

Geographical notes

In the Lower Po Valley, in the Casalasco area (south east of the province of Cremona) which forms the interprovincial area of ​​Casalasco Viadanese with the neighboring Viadanese -Oglio Po-. Distance from Casalmaggiore 5 kilometers; from Viadana 11 kilometers.

Background

Rivarolo del Re was always subject to Casalmaggiore, of which it was one of the villas of its territory, wedged on the border between the Duchy of Milan, the Duchy of Mantua, the Duchy of Parma. The fate followed, marked by countless passages of Italian and foreign rulers, until the entry into the Kingdom of Italy. Until in the early 1900s among the rivarolesi, and in general among the inhabitants of the villas a profound indignation took shape in the municipality of Casalmaggiore for the lack of interest shown by the capital city towards the agricultural centers of its territory, according to them left in neglect, without improvement interventions and above all without reclamation interventions.

Thus a committee was formed of liberation, which led, among others, the nobles Antonio Longari Ponzone and Ippolito Longari Ponzone, family for a long time owner of the country, which led to the presentation to the Chamber of Deputies of a petition for the detachment of Rivarolo from the Municipality of Casalmaggiore, and his constitution in an autonomous municipality.

At first rejected (which caused riots and unrest in the country, with consequent intervention of the army), the proposal was resubmitted and obtained the approval of the Parliament; on 1 April 1915, Law number 447 sanctions the birth of the new Municipality of Rivarolo del Re ed Uniti, where united it indicates the other centers of Villanova, Brugnolo and Breda Azzolini, also separatists from Casalmaggiore.

In the coat of arms of the Municipality of Rivarolo del Re ed Uniti the dog depicted there has a broken chain and is in a festive attitude to underline the joy of detachment from Casalmaggiore, whose colors (blue and silver) are however shown in the coat of arms in memory of ancient unit.

With the advent of the Republic of Salò by decree of 30 March 1944 the name of the municipality was changed to Rivarolo Cremonese; on 25 April 1945 the National Liberation Committee restored the name of Rivarolo del Re and united. On 28 September 1947, after the establishment of the Republic, the municipal administration asked to be able to restore the name of Rivarolo Cremonese, but the authorization was never granted. Therefore the name of the municipality continues to be Rivarolo del Re ed Uniti, in memory of when a king dominated in this strip of the Po valley, not that of the House of Savoy, but that of Spain.

The legend

There is a story, almost mythological in flavor, which has been handed down orally to the present day. When the town was on the bank of a branch of the Adda (dell'oglio), which passed here and divided it from the other Rivarolo (now Mantovano) on the opposite bank, a child playing along the river fell into its raging waters, risking to drown. A mysterious fish named Rolo loaded him on his back and led him safely to the mainland, urged on by the people who came to help: "Come to RIVA - ROLO!"

The Longari Ponzone

This noble family, which has inextricably linked its name to the history of the town, was born from the merger between the Ponzone di Casalmaggiore, cadet branch of the Ponzone Counts of Cremona, who settled in Casalmaggiore in the sixteenth century, and the Longari nobles. In 1830 the last Ponzone, without descent, adopted a Longari, his great-grandson, the son of a sister; from here begins the Longari Ponzone family who chose the Villa di Rivarolo as their residence.

The original lineage of the Ponzone of Cremona was lord of the city at the time of the Lords; had numerous illustrious personalities, and gave rise to different families through marriages and adoptions: the Ala Ponzone (lords of Castelponzone) of which we remember the prestigious Palazzo Ala Ponzone in Cremona, now the seat of the Museum; the Vicenza Ponzone; the Longari Ponzone di Rivarolo del Re, who boasted noble palaces and Podestarian, Notary and Decurional offices also in Casalmaggiore, in addition to the possession of vast estates and farmhouses.

How to orient yourself

The points of interest for a visit are all easily reachable on foot, at a short distance from each other. The town has no parking difficulties or traffic problems. The car can easily be placed in the parking lot of the parish church or in the main square where the Town Hall stands. Paid parking or parking with a parking disc is unknown.

How to get

By plane

They are Lombard airports:

• 45.6661869.7018081 Bergamo-Orio al Serio Airport (the Caravaggio), Via Aeroporto 13, Orio al Serio, ☎ 39 035 326323. 
• 45.638.7230562 Milan-Malpensa Airport (MXP), Ferno. The airport has two terminals (T1 and T2), the second is used for low cost flights. The bus service Motorway connects the airport with Milan central station in about 50 minutes, while the Malpensa Express it connects Terminal 1 with Cadorna station (red and green line underground) in 40 minutes. The buses of the Sadem is Motorway reach the city of Turin (2 hours), while the company Foxes make a few trips for Genoa (3 hours). 
• 45.42555610.3269443 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 

The area is also affected by the airports of:

• 45.39666710.8877784 Verona Airport (Catullus), Boxes of Sommacampagna, ☎ 39 045 8095666, @[email protected]. 
• 44.821810.296035 Parma airport (G. Verdi), Via Emilia - Golese locality, ☎ 39 0521 951511. 
• 44.5352811.291166 Bologna airport, Via Triumvirato 84, ☎ 39 051 6479615. 

By car

• Rivarolo del Re is lapped by the Provincial road Sabbioneta - Cocoon; the provincial is further away Casalmaggiore - Cocoon , which crosses the hamlet of Villanova to the east, from which a road junction with the provincial road starts Sabbioneta - Cocoon that runs along Rivarolo.

On the train

• TO Casalmaggiore station on the line Parma - Brescia
• TO Cocoon station on the line Cremona - Mantua

By bus

• Coach line Casalmaggiore - Buttonhole

How to get around

What see

Of pre-eminent interest are the residences of the Longari Ponzone, a noble family that in the past owned almost all the lands of the town, and that was generous towards this Casalasco center; to them we owe the arrangement in the current forms of the monumental Parish Church of San Zenone.

• 45.0265610.469931 Villa Longari Ponzone. Strange is the plan of this Villa dei Longari Ponzone, a noble Casalasca family that produced numerous Decurions in the Municipal Body of the Separate Land of Casalmaggiore, of which Rivarolo del Re has always been part until the beginning of 1900. Its layout is in fact a Z , with a linear building in exposed stone that delimits the street and served as a stable. On the left, entering from the portico of this body of the building, there is a nineteenth-century style garden, with a small bridge, a cave, a pond and free animals.

The main house has rectangular windows with straight architrave, and on the ground floor a smooth ashlar. The entrance is framed by a porch with Doric columns.

Volumetrically irregular, its originality in the scheme is certainly to be attributed to the remodeling of the building in different eras, with interventions on different and pre-existing buildings. The whole, datable in its final aspect to the eighteenth century, does not therefore respond to a single stylistic and architectural canon. The facade of the villa is shown in a sober and classical style.

In addition to the service rooms and those used for servants, the Villa has about twenty-five rooms that preserve valuable furnishings, furnishings and decorations; a rich library with about three thousand volumes ranging from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century; a billiard room; an eighteenth-century Murano chandelier; a precious piano; the cardboard of Pontida oath (1846) by the painter Giuseppe Diotti of Casalmaggiore (he was later Director of the Carrara Academy of Bergamo), who enjoyed the patronage of Giovanni Vicenza Ponzone during his first artistic activities in Casalasco. 

• 45.0247410.46982 The Todeschina. This villa, whose architectural events range from an ancient nucleus that can be placed in the fifteenth century to the last embellishments of the eighteenth century, belonged to the Negri, then passed to the Longari Ponzone. On the street there is a long construction in exposed stone, with a central portal raised above the wall, which forms one side of the large parallelepiped used as a rustic house for the manor house and as a tool shed and stables; on the opposite side of the entrance portal a gate leads into the rear courtyard of the Villa.

This develops on a horizontal course, with a mezzanine, and reaches considerable dimensions. The linear façade has a central body underlined by angular ashlars, with a central portal and architraved side windows. The body of the building is contrasted by the impetus of a perhaps fifteenth-century tower that seems to have survived a defensive structure. All around the villa a large extension of land contributes to highlighting the entire complex, which includes in the construction on one side of the rear courtyard also a clock tower with a through portico. 

• Villa Longari Ponzone - Brunelli Bonetti. The construction of this residence can be attributed to immediately after the mid-eighteenth century, which has a facade with very varied decorative characteristics. It is in good condition. 
• Villa Negri - Longari Ponzone - Letizia. Built towards the end of the eighteenth century, it has important additions from the following nineteenth century, especially in the portico and terrace that surmounts it. It is in good condition. 

• 45.027110.4713 Parish church. The parish church, Archpriest, is dedicated to San Zenone. Its history has its roots in the fourteenth century; it was rebuilt in the decade 1750 - 1760. The central nave, slender and airy, and the high soaring dome seem to want to testify to the wealth and economic power of the Longari Ponzone, the family that ruled the town and a great client in the works of the building. The last intervention dates back to the early twentieth century, when the temple was extended to make it take the form of a Latin cross.

Majestic in the façade, it has three orders, further enlarged by side porticoes, one on each side. The titular San Zenone is frescoed on the top. The high bell tower was built in 1818 by the Casalasco architect Canuti. Inside the temple, an ancient painting depicting the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary tells us about the pre-existing ancient church. 

• 45.0551810.488854 The Cascina Torretta. There may be some interest in the Breda Azzolini hamlet, along the provincial road that from Rivarolo del Re goes in the direction of Cocoon, the Cascina Torretta, built in the late nineteenth century; the building, with a Greek cross plan, is an example of how the characteristics of the typology of the most refined villa they are adapted to a certain extent to the main body of the farmhouse. 

Events and parties

• Tomato festival. In mid-July. 
• Festival in Brugnolo. First Sunday of September. 
• September fair and cycling Grand Prix for amateurs. Half September. 

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Average prices

• 45.03800310.4297821 La Maddalena restaurant and pizzeria, Maddalena road (in Villanova), ☎ 39 0375 776339. 
• 45.01991810.5088052 Corte Bondeno restaurant - farmhouse, via Mezzana Loria, ☎ 39 345 8012912. 

Where stay

Moderate prices

• 45.04474910.480011 ^{[link not working]}Breda hostel, via Breda Azzolini 7b (to Breda Azzolini), ☎ 39 338 4146293, @[email protected]. open 01 / 04-31 / 10 

Safety

Pharmacy

• 45.02903510.4682217 Ghisellini, via F. Aporti 35, ☎ 39 0375 534016. 

How to keep in touch

Post office

• 45.0280310.470755 Italian post, via Papa Giovanni XXIII, 5, ☎ 39 0375 535259. 

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

• Mantua - Capital of the Gonzagas, it still exudes its subtle charm of a great city of art for which it appoints it a UNESCO World Heritage Site it was not so much a recognition as a necessary acknowledgment. Its ancient atmospheres are incomparable, the profiles of the palaces and domes that stand out in the Po Valley mist enveloped by the mirror of its lakes, its endless Gonzaga palace that incorporates numerous buildings in the city center.
• Parma - One of the major cities of art inEmilia, it maintains with great evidence the aspect, elegance and ways of life of a capital, as it was for centuries. The Farnese della Pilotta palace, the Romanesque Cathedral, the Steccata church are some of the monumental emergencies that characterize the city; of great fame his theater, his musical tradition (Giuseppe Verdi), his school of painting (Correggio, Parmigianino), his love for good food (Parma ham, salami, Parmigiano Reggiano, Lambrusco).
• 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 Ducal Palace, 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.
• Rivarolo Mantovano - The arcaded Gonzaga square is the fulcrum of Rivarolo Mantovano which owes its physiognomy to Vespasiano Gonzaga, who here experimented with the construction of the Ideal City and then completed with the nearby Sabbioneta. Its urban layout, checkerboard, its city gates, the round of the walls for the remaining part, the buildings, the views make it a timeless center.
• 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.

Itineraries

• Rivarolo del Re is part of the Strada del Gusto Cremonese in the land of Stradivari, a route of food and wine tourism promotion, about 560 kilometers long and recognized by the Lombardy Region, which winds through the province of Cremona on a territory of 115 municipalities, including: Rivolta d'Adda, Spino d'Adda, Soncino, Cream, Castelleone, Soresina, Casalbuttano, Robecco d'Oglio, Pescarolo and United, Dovarese Island, Piadena, Torricella del Pizzo, Cremona is Casalmaggiore.
• In the lands of the Gonzagas - An itinerary through the centers, large and small, which were the capitals of the Gonzaga cadet branches: principalities, marquisates, duchies which, within the Mantuan state structure, enjoyed real independence, often minted coins and held refined courts that rivaled that of Mantua, embellished their urban centers by equipping them with elegant architecture - churches, squares, palaces, walls, towers - and characteristic urban views such as the typical Gonzaga arcades.

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Rivarolo del Re
• Commons contains images or other files on Rivarolo del Re

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