| Volpedo | ||
 | ||
| State | Italy | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Piedmont | |
| Territory | Tortonese | |
| Altitude | 182 m a.s.l. | |
| Surface | 10.48 km² | |
| Inhabitants | 1.261 (year 2010) | |
| Name inhabitants | Volpedesi | |
| Prefix tel | 39 0131 | |
| POSTAL CODE | 15059 | |
| Time zone | UTC 1 | |
| Patron | St. John the Apostle (December 27) | |
Position
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| Institutional website | ||
Volpedo is a center of the Piedmont.
To know
Known for being the birthplace of Pellizza da Volpedo, a well-known painter whose most famous painting is certainly The fourth state, this pretty Piedmontese border town is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.
Geographical notes
The country is located in Val Curone in the area of Tortona in Piedmont, on the border withOltrepò Pavese and the Staffora Valley, on the first corrugations of the Apennines, is 11 km from Tortona, 14 from Voghera, 8 from Salice Terme, 23 from Varzi, 33 from Alexandria, 41 from Pavia.
Background
A sepulchral stele, now set in a side wall of the parish rectory, testifies to the Roman presence as early as the first century, although the settlement probably dates back to the ancient Ligurian populations. The first written memory of the town is of 21 August 966, where the parish is named. Throughout the 10th century the town is attested with different names: Vicus Piculus, Vicus Peculus, Vipegulus, Vulpeculus, therefore in any case a Vicus, that is a Roman village. Also from the same period, as well as the parish church, the castrum, the fortified village of which part of the walls is still visible today (rebuilt in the 16th century). In the twelfth century it becomes Vicus pecudis, sheep village and its fortunes are linked to the city of Tortona, to whom he helped during the siege of Frederick Barbarossa in 1155.
In 1347 Tortona passes under the Visconti of Milan who in 1412 granted Volpedo as a fief to the mercenary captain Perino Cameri. The latter in 1425 donates it to the Fabbrica del Duomo in Milan which allows the village considerable administrative autonomy. The historic rivalry with the village of Monleale, on the left bank of the Curone, of the Ghibelline faction, and Volpedo, Guelfo, led to the destruction of the latter in 1513, including the walls of the castrum which were rebuilt starting from 1589 when Milan was under the Spanish domination. In 1738 Volpedo, together with all the Tortona area, passed under the kingdom of Sardinia and was given by the Savoy to the Marquis Filippo Guidobono Cavalchini of Momperone and then passed in 1849 to the Malaspina family.
How to orient yourself
Volpedo: full screen map.The streets of Volpedo are an open-air museum for anyone who wants to admire the reproductions of the main works of Pellizza.city itinerary to admire them all:
- 1 Malaspina square, Fourth State Square. Photo of the square.
- 2 The Fourth Estate, Fourth State Square. Group posing, photographic reconstruction and plaque.
- 3 The little mortician (Cut flower), Road to Casalnoceto, avenue to the cemetery. Photo inauguration 2009
- 4 The procession, Road to Casalnoceto (Near the painter's studio). Panel photo.
- 5 On the barn, Garibaldi Street (Pellizza house courtyard). Panel photo.
- 6 Mommy, Via G. Cornaggia (In front of the parish church). Panel photo.
- 7 Spring idyll, Meadows of the parish church. Photos celebrations 2007.
- 8 Cloths in the sun, Via G. Cornaggia (Alongside the Workers' Society).
- 9 Volpedo under the snow, Via G. Cornaggia (Ring road). Panel photo.
- 10 Looks tired (Family of emigrants), Square of the Emigrants (In the ancient Torraglio). Photo inauguration 2009 and plaque.
- 11 The sun (The rising sun), Via Torraglio (Battlements of the Spanish walls).
- 12 The Volpedo square, Liberty Square (Corner via Pellizza). Photo of the square.
- 13 The mirror of life, Via Pellizza (At the height of the bridge over the Curone). The scenery of the painting and photo of the panel.
- 14 New road in Volpedo (Off to Volpedo), Perino square (New Street Corner). Photos of the place today.
- 15 Old mill, Mazzini street (Corner of Piazza Perino).
- 16 Hopes dashed, Mazzini street.
- 17 Pontecastello, Mazzini street (Corner via Pontecastello).
- 18 The snow, Strada Clementina.
Neighborhoods
The municipal territory of Volpedo also includes the villages of Ca 'Barbieri, Casanova, Cascinetta, Cà Stringa, Croce and Ghilina.
How to get
By plane
- 19 Milan-Malpensa Airport (MXP), Ferno (121 km approximately). 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 in 40 minutes (red and green metro lines). The buses of the Sadem is Motorway reach the city of Turin (2 hours), while the company Foxes make some trips for Genoa (3 hours).
- 20 Turin Caselle Airport (TRN), Strada Aeroporto, 12 Caselle Torinese (Approximately 52 km), ☎ 39 011 5676361.
By car
Highway exit a Tortona on the A7 motorway Milan - Genoa
Provincial Road 100 Viguzzolo - Castellar Guidobono - Volpedo
Provincial Road 102 Volpedo - Casalnoceto
Provincial Road 104 Volpedo - Godiasco
Provincial Road 97 Volpedo - Pontecurone
Highway exit a 
Provincial Road 100 
Provincial Road 102 Volpedo - Casalnoceto
Provincial Road 104 Volpedo - Godiasco
Provincial Road 97 Volpedo - PontecuroneOn the train
By bus
The town is served by bus lines:
- Alexandria - salt - Castelnuovo - Voghera
- Caldirola - Tortona Bus station - Alexandria
How to get around
What see
- 1 Parish church of San Pietro. The Romanesque Pieve di San Pietro is the main historical monument of Volpedo. Already mentioned in documents of the 10th century, it was remodeled in the 15th century. Inside there are frescoes, some of which are also valuable, attributed to the Tortona school of Manfredino and Franceschino Boxilio (15th - early 16th century) [1], a school also active at the Milan Cathedral.
- The building (mentioned for the first time in a parchment of 965) has a brick structure and river pebbles. The salient façade suggests the presence of three naves inside; the height of the side aisles, which was originally much lower (as is still visible today in the nearby and contemporary parish church of Viguzzolo), was raised in the reconstruction of the fifteenth century. On the façade there is a pointed portal, of very simple manufacture, and asymmetrically arranged pilaster decorations are used. With the disappearance of the original apses that closed the side aisles, only the main apse remains, decorated with pilasters with hanging arches. The interior has three naves, divided by rows of four quadrangular pillars that support pointed or round arches; the roof is trussed.
- Of great interest are the late fifteenth-century frescoes for which the work of the Boxilio brothers (indicated in the archive documents also as Baxilio, or Basiglio), of Castelnuovo Scrivia, owners of the most important workshop in the Tortona area, has been hypothesized. The recent restorations have allowed the recovery of the paintings in the apse. The basin is occupied by the figure of Christ pantocrator surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists (the so-called Tetramorph), with the elegantly dressed figure of the Virgin on one side and that of St. Michael the Archangel on the other. In the lower register, in a niche located just below the almond with the Christ, is placed - to underline the continuity between the Old and New Testament - the figure of King David, portrayed with a gray beard and hair and with clothes that seem taken from a miniature courteous. It is flanked on both sides by the usual one theory of the Twelve Apostles and from an image of Christ in Pietà. The style, despite the date of execution, is still markedly Gothic. At the bottom of the right aisle was placed one Madonna and Child, fragment of a fresco from the same period and an image dear to popular devotion.
- The sturdy pillars of the aisles house an interesting theory of ex-votos: these are the images of the saints invoked by the faithful who together make up a remarkable iconographic gallery created during the fifteenth - early sixteenth century. Only some works have critics recently succeeded in recognizing the authorship: a certain Antonius signs a fragment placed on the wall to the right of the apse (1462) and would also have painted the figures of Saints Cosma and Damiano on the fourth right pillar. The author of the aedicule leaning against the third right pillar, depicting the Virgin enthroned with Saints James and Agata (1502) is identified in Giovanni Quirico Boxilio da Tortona.
- The images of the saints depicted on the pillars of the church suggested the subject of one of his canvases to Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo: the painting is entitled Pilastro della Pieve di Volpedo (1891-92).
- 2 Sixteenth-century ramparts. Remarkable is the part that was saved from the powerful sixteenth-century bastions that enclosed the castrum and that outline the ancient part of the village.
- 3 Parish Church of San Pietro. The nineteenth-century parish church of San Pietro Apostolo stands on the site of the house of Giovannino Costa, a young shepherd who was brutally killed in 1468 and who, like Blessed Giovannino martyr, became the patron saint of the town. In the church there is a San Luigino, the work of Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1894)
- 4 Municipal building. In the main square of the town (Piazza della Libertà) there is the nineteenth-century municipal building, inside which there is a plaque with marble bas-relief that commemorates the donation of Volpedo by Perino Cameri to the Fabbrica del Duomo in Milan in the fifteenth century : it is the work of the sculptor Jacopino da Tradate.
- 5 Museum - Studio of Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (Pellizza house), Via Rosano n.1, ☎ 39 0131 80318, fax: 39 0131 80318, @[email protected].
Free entry. 
May-September: Sat-Sun 16: 00-19: 00; October-April: Sat-Sun 15: 00-17: 00. At the far end of the town, towards the cemetery, are the birthplace and studio of Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo. It contains work tools, personal objects, books and even some of the artist's works.
Free entry. 
May-September: Sat-Sun 16: 00-19: 00; October-April: Sat-Sun 15: 00-17: 00. At the far end of the town, towards the cemetery, are the birthplace and studio of Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo. It contains work tools, personal objects, books and even some of the artist's works.Events and parties
- Patronal feast of San Giovannino. Penultimate Sunday of August.
- Pellizza da Volpedo Biennial of art, culture and entertainment, ☎ 39 0131 80318, fax: 39 0131 80318, @[email protected]. In odd years.
- Antiques and mood market. Every third Sunday of the month.
What to do
Shopping
The country is known for its fruit production, in particular peaches and strawberries which are also marketed as jams or peaches in syrup), grapes, cherries and apricots.
How to have fun
Where to eat
Typical dish are quarantine potato gnocchi with truffle; rabbit or hare terrine; Bavarian cream with Volpedo yellow peaches on Volpedo strawberry sauce.
Average prices
- 1 La Palmana, Via della Clementina, 11, ☎ 39 0131 806204, fax: 39 0131 806655.
Where stay
Average prices
- 1 The Dimora Chapel, Municipal Road to La Clementina, 11, ☎ 39 0131 806204.
Safety
Pharmacy
- 21 Baravalle, Freedom Square, 1, ☎ 39 0131 80121.
How to keep in touch
Post office
- 22 Italian post, Freedom Square 26, ☎ 39 0131 80120, fax: 39 0131 80120.
Around
- Salice Terme - A large Art Nouveau-style Hotel delle Terme, surrounded by a large planted park, celebrated the success that the spa had in the twenties-thirties-forties of the twentieth century. The Hotel is now closed; the thermal baths, on the other hand, continue their activity profitably, which has been the driving force behind the building development of Salice which has equipped itself with hotels, restaurants, swimming pools for the use of curative tourism of which it has become a destination.
- Rivanazzano Terme - It almost forms a conurbation with the nearby Willow; its spa was born in 1913 with the discovery of the springs in the area of San Francesco. It is recently enhancing its facilities in an attempt to achieve the notoriety of the neighbor.
- Voghera - Main center not only of the Val Staffora, but the capital of allOltrepò Pavese, the city remembers with its elegant urban layout, from the sober Piedmontese architecture, its long Savoy belonging
- Varzi - Capital of the high Staffora Valley, has a beautiful historic center. It was a focal point in the ancient trade routes. Its recent fame is linked to climate tourism and to Varzi salami which constitutes the excellence of its food production.
- Tortona - City of ancient origin, it has always been a crossroads of trade and commerce. Its historic center has the elegance and sobriety of Piedmontese cities with Lombard influences.
- Zavattarello - Among the most beautiful villages in Italy, Zavatterello is a medieval village in theOltrepò Pavese famous for the Dal Verme Castle where, according to a legend, the ghost of Pietro Dal Verme roams.
