Varese Ligure - Varese Ligure

Varese Ligure is a city of Liguria.

To know

It is part of the most beautiful villages in Italy and has been awarded the orange flag by the Italian Touring Club.

Geographical notes

On the Ligurian Apennines, where they cross Liguria, Emilia is Tuscany, Varese Ligure participates in the life of all three regions; is 28 km from Sestri Levante, 33 from Borgo Val di Taro, 50 from Pontremoli, 55 from Spice.

Background

The birth of the Varese village takes its origin from the strategic position placed at the intersection of the trans-Apennine roads directed towards Parma is Tortona. The routes starting from Sestri Levante is Luni in Varese they found easy access to the Po Valley, with the consequent creation of an exchange market. In the area of ​​present-day Varese Ligure there must have been a settlement from the Byzantine era, the remains of which have been found under the Fieschi castle. Traces of the Lombard presence and the monks of San Colombano di Bobbio also remain in the dedication of the churches of Porciorasco and Ossegna. The presence of the Fliscan counts of Lavagna in the territory dates back to the beginning of the 11th century when, in 1161, they obtained the investiture from the emperor Frederick I. At the end of the 12th century the branches of the Fieschi and Penelli counts settled in the current Cassego. Almost immediately the long season of conflicts between the two families began, until the Fieschis drove the Penellis from Cassego and forced them to take refuge in the nearby Carbello where they built a tower, called the Penelli tower. With a subsequent pact the two families divided the territory: the one to the west of the tower belonged to the Fieschi, that to the east to the Penelli, while the land beyond the Scagliana river remained in common property.

Their numerical superiority led the Fieschis to conquer supremacy in the upper Val di Vara by the end of the 13th century; they therefore decided to found a village that was the fulcrum of the entire area; a settlement project was therefore drawn up, which included walled houses and all the same along the road leading from the Parma at the sea. The Fieschis administered the fiefdom until 1386, when the Genoese doge Antoniotto Adorno bought it from Count Carlo Fieschi. Soon the family returned to it, but in the 15th century its dominion was threatened twice and in 1435 Nicolò Piccinino, leading an expedition ordered by Filippo Maria Visconti against the Fieschis, arrived from Borgotaro, took possession of Varese and the castle of Monte Tanano and destroyed the castle of Montevecchio.

In 1472 Varese passed under the domination of the Landi, feudal lords of the high Val di Taro, following the marriage of the lord of Compiano, Manfredo, with Antonia Maria Fieschi. It was Gian Luigi Fieschi the Elder, in 1478, who regained the fiefdom from the family that held it until 1547 when, following the failed conspiracy of his nephew Gian Luigi against Andrea Doria, the power of the family collapsed and its domains were confiscated by the Republic of Genoa. following its fate and becoming an important Genoese strategic point in the La Spezia lands with the creation of the homonymous podestà.

After the Napoleonic domination in 1815 it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia and subsequently into the Kingdom of Italy from 1861. In 1862 it assumed the current name of Varese Ligure.

How to orient yourself

Neighborhoods

Its municipal territory also includes the villages of Buto, Caranza, Cassego, Cavizzano, Codivara, Comuneglia, Costola, Montale, Porciorasco, Salino, San Pietro Vara, Scurtabò, Teviggio, Taglieto and Valletti.

How to get

By car

• It is affected by the Provincial Road 523R of the Colle di Centocroci that connects Sestri Levante to Val di Taro in Emilia.

How to get around

What see

• Borgo Rotondo, in the historic center. Wanted by the Fieschi for the control and defense of the Varese area, it is formed by the same stone houses arranged along the perimeter which, with an elliptical shape, enclose the two main squares (piazza Fieschi and piazza Castello), where the commercial activities were located in the underlying arcades , warehouses and laboratories. An internal connection system made up of lateral alleys-carruggi still allows you to look out onto the only median street, formerly closed by two doors and of which only the southern one is still visible. In the northern part is the palace and then the Fieschi castle, formerly the noble residence of the feudal lords and, with the domination of the Genoese republic, the seat of the podestà and prisons. The market took place in the village square. 

• Grecino bridge, in the neighborhood of the same name. It is a single arch bridge built in 1515 and overhanging the Crovana stream. 
• Ferrari Palace. In the private chapel of the building, now transformed into private homes, the wedding between the Marquis Domenico Pallavicini and Luigia Ferrari was celebrated. The ode to Luigia Pallavicini fallen from a horse by the poet Ugo Foscolo is dedicated to the latter. The local war memorial is now located in the private garden of the palace. 
• Civic tower. The tower was originally the bell tower of the convent church of Santa Croce degli Agostiniani, a religious building that was closed and suppressed in the Napoleonic domination between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century. After the works of art had been transferred to the parish church of San Giovanni Battista, the church was then deconsecrated in the 20th century and today converted into spaces for cultural activities. 

• Fieschi Castle. Located in the northern part of the so-called Borgo Rotondo, was built by the Fieschi feudal lords in medieval times for the control and defense of Varese. The structure is mainly made up of the two towers of Piccinino, built in 1435, e by Manfredo Landi of 1472. Private property, however, it is granted for events and exhibitions. 
• Fieschi Castle on Mount Tanano. Built in the twelfth century by the Fliscan family as opposed to the Pinellis, the castle was at the center of the war events that affected the Varese area in the fifteenth century, in particular in the siege of the leader Niccolò Piccinino and, later, in the reconquest stratagem hatched by Gian Luigi Fieschi; the events attest that it was then Fieschi himself who ordered the destruction of the manor, in 1492, with the use of some parts of the castle for the construction of the houses of the Borgo Rotondo in Varese Ligure; however, some ruins of the structure remain visible. 
• Remains of fortifications. In the Varese area, the remains and ruins of ancient fortifications are still visible, mostly built by the Fieschi and Pinelli families in medieval times. In Cassego there are the remains of a so-called fortification the Torricella as well as in Cavizzano the castle built by the Pinellis or the so-called Flono castle of Codivara by Novasina or Panizzaro. 

• Parish church of San Giovanni Battista (in the chief town). Built towards the middle of the 17th century, it houses paintings and sculptures by the masters Luigi Sciallero, Giovanni Andrea De Ferrari, Gregorio De Ferrari and Anton Maria Maragliano.

The construction of the new parish church was completed in 1648 in Baroque style, on the site of a pre-existing building dated to the 15th century. The building has a Latin cross plan and a three-nave division. The last interventions outside the church took place in 1929 with the construction of the pronaos. Internally it presents cycles of frescoes, as in the barrel vault of the main nave by Giuseppe Galeotti, depicting scenes from the life of the saint titular of the church.

Among the pictorial and sculptural works preserved in the left aisle there is a depicting painting St. John the Beheaded of the sixteenth century, a canvas of the Immaculate Conception by the Genoese painter Luigi Sciallero and an alabaster statue reproducing a Madonna and Child, brought from England by Count Pietro Giulio Cristiani in 1551, the work of an English sculptor of the fifteenth century; on the sides of the Baroque high altar there are two reproducing canvases Episodes from the life of the Baptist by Felice Guascone, also author of the painting by Madonna of the Rosary exhibited in the chapel at the end of the left aisle.

On the right side of the church there are paintings by Giovanni Andrea De Ferrari and Gregorio De Ferrari; the painting by Saint Francis of Assisi with Jesus Nazarene, to the second the painting depicting Saint Peter the Apostle released from prison. A wooden statue reproducing the Our Lady of the Visitation it is kept in the head chapel, a work attributed to the sculptor Anton Maria Maragliano and carried annually in procession on the patronal feasts of July.

Another wooden statue, depicting the Madonna of the Belt, dating back to the eighteenth century and coming from the suppressed church of Santa Croce degli Agostiniani, is instead exposed above the walnut wood choir of the sixteenth century. 

• Church of Saints Philip Neri and Teresa of Avila (in the capital). Located in the main square of the village, in front of the medieval castle of the Fieschi, it was built in the seventeenth century. Originally it was the church of the convent complex of the nuns of the Order of Sant'Agostino, later converted into a cloistered monastery in 1652 by the local Brigida Caranza. Externally it has a baroque style façade with two orders, bordered on the sides by two twin bell towers; the interior, with a single nave, is characterized by a Greek cross plan, divided by Corinthian-style pilasters. In the right altar there is a canvas depicting the Meeting of Saint Francis Xavier with Saint Dominic, opposite, in the one on the left, the painting with the Apparition of the Virgin Mary to Saint Francis Xavier, canvas attributed to the painter Gregorio De Ferrari. A wooden group reproducing the Madonna of Caravaggio, dated to the eighteenth century, is instead preserved above the main altar. 
• Oratory of Saints Antonio and Rocco (in the capital). Located next to the parish church of San Giovanni Battista. Built in the seventeenth century, in Baroque style, it is the seat of the fifteenth-century brotherhood of the same name. The oratory is located near the parish church of San Giovanni Battista. Built in the seventeenth century in Baroque style, it is the seat of the fifteenth-century brotherhood of the same name - founded in 1451 and still active - and preserves inside various decorations, frescoes and religious ornaments including processional crucifixes, lanterns and pastoral. In the vault there are frescoed cycles by the painter Giuseppe Galeotti, on the walls the depictions of the Twelve Apostles and above the entrance door a copy of the Last Supper by Careggio. 
• Oratory of Santa Sabina (in the capital). A noble church of the Chiappe counts from the 17th century, the century of construction, this building was also frescoed by Giuseppe Galeotti. The building is now used as a venue for cultural activities. 
• Parish Church of St. Peter the Apostle. 
• Parish church of San Martino bishop, in the hamlet of Montale. Over the centuries, the current church has undergone considerable changes to the structure that have, in part, changed what were the primitive elements of the fifteenth-century church. 
• Church of San Michele Arcangelo (in the hamlet of Porciorasco.). Inside there is a wooden group, from the Genoese sculptural school of the eighteenth century, depicting a Madonna and Child donated to the church by the De Paoli family, originally from Corsica. And the statue is linked to the island as it seems to be a wooden reproduction of the famous Madonna of Lavasina venerated in the homonymous sanctuary near Brando. 
• Parish Church of San Pietro Apostolo (in the hamlet of San Pietro Vara). considered one of the oldest churches in the valley. 

Events and parties

• Patronal feast of Our Lady of the Visitation (in Varese Ligure.). the first Sunday of July. 
• Opera Festival. first two weeks of August. organized annually by Opera Club Varese Ligure 
• Patronal feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary (in the hamlet of Buto). September 8. 
• Patronal feast of San Lorenzo martyr (in the hamlet of Caranza). on August 10. 
• Patronal feast of the Madonna della Guardia (in the hamlet of Cassego). on August 29. 
• Patronal feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary (in the hamlet of Cavizzano). the Sunday after 12 September. 
• Patronal feast of St. John the Baptist (in the hamlet of Codivara). on June 24. 
• Patronal feast of St. James the Major (in the hamlet of Costola). on July 25. 
• Patronal feast of Saint Anthony of Padua (in the hamlet of Montale). on June 13. 
• Patronal feast of St. Michael the Archangel (in the hamlet of Porciorasco). on September 29. 
• Patronal feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (in the hamlet of Salino). on August 15. 
• Feast of San Venanzio (in the hamlet of Salino). on May 18. 
• Patronal feast of St. Peter the Apostle (in the hamlet of San Pietro Vara). on June 29. 
• Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (in the hamlet of San Pietro Vara). the second Sunday of August. 
• Feast of Our Lady of Loreto (in the hamlet of San Pietro Vara). the second Sunday of September. 
• Patronal feast of San Lorenzo martyr (in the hamlet of Scurtabò). on August 10. 
• Patronal feast of San Bernardo di Chiaravalle (in the hamlet of Taglieto). on August 20. 
• Patronal feast of the Madonna di Caravaggio (in the hamlet of Teviggio). on May 26. 
• Patronal feast of Sant'Anna (in the hamlet of Valletti.). on July 26. 
• San Martino di Tour Fair. November 11th.. 

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Moderate prices

• Pizzeria Il Castello, Via Portici, 29 (closed Wednesday), ☎ 39 388 4777114. 
• L'Incontro Pizzeria, Via Lobia, 40 (Closed on Mondays), ☎ 39 0187 842191. 

Average prices

• Osteria Du Chicchinettu, Piazza Mazzini, 5 (Closed on Wednesday), ☎ 39 0187 842052. 

Where stay

Moderate prices

• Alpine Hotel Restaurant, Locality Chiappara - Taglieto hamlet (A star), ☎ 39 0187 840503. Restaurant closed on Fridays 
• Ranch Camillo Ranch Restaurant, Centocroci - Taglieto hamlet (A star), ☎ 39 0187 842128, fax: 39 0185 311863. Restaurant closed on Tuesdays 

Average prices

• Amici Hotel, Via Garibaldi, 80 (three stars), ☎ 39 0187 842139, fax: 39 0187 1855908, @[email protected]. Always open restaurant. 

Safety

Pharmacies

• Basteri, Piazza Guglielmo Marconi 51 1, ☎ 39 0187 842104. 
• Cesena, Piazza Guglielmo Marconi 63, ☎ 39 0187 842182. 

How to keep in touch

Post office

• Italian post, Via del Municipio 32, ☎ 39 0187 842396, fax: 39 0187 842090. 

Around

• Sestri Levante
• Moneglia
• Framura
• Levanto
• Borgo Val di Taro

Other projects

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

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