Alluvioni Cambiò: sights, history and trails

Alluvioni Cambiò is located in the middle of the Po Valley 15 km north-east of Alessandria, near the confluence of Tanaro in the Po, which in this section marks the border with Lomellina. It is not far from the Scrivia stream and the proximity of three waterways has caused numerous floods over the decades. The inhabited center is crossed by the 45th parallel, the equidistant line between the North Pole and the Equator.

The Po has always been a determining factor in the history of the area, subject to frequent floods by the river that once flowed further south than its current course. Cambiò was in fact part of Lomellina, Pavia territory since 1164, built on the ancient village of Shoot., gradually abandoned since the late Middle Ages, coinciding with the construction of the nearby Borgo Franco, and submerged by several floods between the 15th century and the 18th century^[4], and later part of the municipality of Cambiò and Sparvara.

In the 19th century Cambiò suffered a partial destruction by the Po, which forced the town to move further north; the village took the name of Cambiò Nuovo, and in 1867 the commune was suppressed and joined to Gambarana, in the new one province of Pavia, current Lombardy.

The area of the municipality of Cambiò which had remained in the south of the Po was detached and constituted a fraction of the commune of Bassignana in 1800. The village was then erected in common to itself, under the name of Alluvioni Cambiò, in 1819.
The floods are recurring in the history of the village and often razed to the entire inhabited ground and for this reason the country does not have very ancient monuments. Of some relief is the church of San Carlo, dating back to 1850.

In the autumn of 2017, a referendum was held to decide on union with the neighbouring municipality. Piovera^[5][6]. After the positive outcome, the two municipalities merged into the new municipality of Alluvioni Piovera on 1 January 2018.

The abundance of water is also a determining element for the irrigation of the fields, the numerous vegetable gardens in the area that are specialized in the production of onions, peppers, peas, spinach, zucchini and sedans. In the area, as in all the Po Valley there is widespread cultivation of cereals and forage. As the country of small size, the industry is little present, but there are still three factories for woodworking and one for plastics.

Below is a table relating to the administrations that have succeeded one another in this municipality.

• The Piemonte country by country, Florence, Bonechi, 1993.